Another Meeting
by Kushin eX
Summary: Naruto and Jiraiya trained together for years, a bond of sensei and student. This is a collection of moments displaying that bond.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

XxX

The sun beat down on the clearing with a ferocious intensity; a low lying wind blew grass around his ankles. The trees seemed to speak with both encouragement and taunts as the wind ran over the bark like sandpaper over skin. Naruto looked over his creation with eminence as he focused on its difficult conception.

"Focus the chakra, rotate, add power and CONTR…*PHMP*" were the instructions before the creation imploded on itself causing a backlash of chakra.

Saying this backlash pushed Naruto back would be like saying the Arctic was a tad cold. Jiraiya watched this from up a tree as Naruto was sent clear across his training area with pity in his eyes. This was the third day that Naruto had been out here and it was starting to show. His already abominable chakra control had descended to almost below all previous benchmarks for lack of control. Ironically, previously set by Kyuubi.

'_For the sake of Icha Icha, I hope he gets this soon.'_ Thought Jiraiya as he hopped towards town.

XxX

"I'M TELLING YOU KID, GIVE UP ON SASUKE!" yelled Jiraiya "IT'S A FOOLS AMBITION" This was really getting on his nerves. The brat had been acting like this even since he failed to bring back the Uchiha kid. It wasn't like it was his fault but he still insisted on bringing the scummy little traitor back, and in one piece to boot.

"And why's that?" mumbled Naruto, quieter than was usual which was pleasant to both Jiraiya's sanity and eardrums.

Jiraiya sighed heavily and calmed himself down "Because that kid is never coming back by his own choice. He chose to abandon this village and now he's going to the one person who is in the same position"

"You regret your choice too then?" spoke Naruto, louder this time "You're trying to stop me doing what you spent your life doing, bringing back a best friend?"

Jiraiya looked queerly at Naruto before down turning his head. This kid was smarter than he let on. Not genius like intellect but almost like a savant for seeing underneath the underneath.

"Yeah kid, that's right" was all he could say before he heard a dull thump on the floor.

*thump*

*thump*

*thump*

'_That's plaster on the floor, has he fallen out of bed?'_ thought Jiraiya

The next thing he knew, he had shifted his head to side slightly and avoided a rather wide but powerful uppercut. He was sure Naruto was aiming to hit but knew that his own self-preservation instinct would dodge it.

"Buck up you old codger, you're not done yet. We're going on that training trip you promised and we're BOTH going to achieve our goals. Got It?" said Naruto, not icily, but serious all the same. They both looked at each other and did what they knew had to be done, to break free of the village's bonds for the three years they were going to leave for. They ran.

XxX

The sun laughed at the pair high in the sky, it spitting its warmth down onto them like a frat party prank. The sand spinning around them like a carousel causing irritation to both their eyes but not letting it affect them. This spar in the Land Of Wind wasn't exactly the best idea for their health but it was maybe the one place that could be easily reached for extreme conditions training. The elder of the two went into a taijutsu stance known only to a few select people.

The younger simply muttered it's name, he too was learning this style but was far less experienced than his sensei.

"Gamaken" The Toad Blade.

"Start your assault Naruto. I need training too so go all out."

The blond needed no confirmation for that, he was already halfway towards Jiraiya. A simple rotating punch was blocked by Jiraiya's left kneecap and countered by Jiraiya jumping in the air, using his weight to push his right leg up towards a man's sensitivity. Naruto jumped back to avoid this and caused a large amount of sand to get caught around his foot forcing him to fall backwards ungraciously onto his ass.

"Use your toes Naruto! They'll save your life!" yelled Jiraiya as he used those heavily muscled legs of his to jump into the air. He then took a leaf out of Tsunade's book and prepared to use a rather heavy axe kick.

It was as he watched the foot come down that Naruto realized why Jiraiya had such powerful kicks. Underneath his geta were sheets of metal soaked in toad oil. While he had never seen this elusive material before, the rather beef-like smell emitted by it was more than a giveaway. He continued to smell the beef even stronger until the geta finally impacted with his nose.

"Naruto you moron, don't hesitate, look forward and NEVER back down or YOU WILL DIE!"

The force from the kick pushed Naruto back several feet. This provided the perfect distraction as he started forming hand seals.

'_Finally… a little variety; this kid gets so boring sometimes'_ thought Jiraiya

"Earth Style: Terra Forma!" called Naruto as he formed the final seal. A large structure of sand emerged from the ground surrounding Jiraiya.

'_Let's see where he's going with this'_

The earth structure began as four pillars which curved and crisscrossed into each other to form a circular tube with Jiraiya in the middle.

'_So I'm trapped in an earth box… is it just me or is it getting hot in here?' _

That was as far as Jiraiya's thoughts got before he noticed the sand glow red above him.

Naruto had used a Fire Style technique and was now glassing over the sand on top in varying degrees. The glass formed started to act as a giant magnifying glass under the unforgiving sun of the Land Of Wind. Jiraiya knew this was bad but it wasn't until the rather soft fabric of his red overcoat started smouldering and setting his hair on fire.

Naruto watched the structure start burbling like a child with a straw and a soda. When it exploded outwards, revealing a rather singed Jiraiya, he knew this wasn't going to end well.

'_He really has changed'_ thought Jiraiya.

XxX

She was hot. There was simply no other way Naruto could describe her. Long orange hair colored a soft tone, almost like a peach. Originally tied up in two ponytails with bells attached, this fabric ambrosia was entangled in Naruto's hands. Her nails slowly dragged their way down his back as she moved herself slowly around in his lap. She leant into his chest and sighed happily.

She traced a finger slowly up and down his chest, feeling the hardened contours of his pectorals. Naruto wasn't a fan a sitting still for too long, he had to do something about this.

He picked her up and laid her on her back, the soft white button up shirt she was wearing crinkling slightly as she wriggled against the cotton sheets. Naruto slowly ran his finger up her stomach and into the valley of her chest. His lips pressing into the crook of her neck.

"Asuna, are you ready?" crooned Naruto softly

"Of course I am Taka, I've been ready since the first time I met you" came a gentle voice, almost like the bells that once adorned her hair.

Naruto slowly reached down and moved her panties away, revealing her pinkness. She blushed slightly as Naruto started rubbing up and down her slightly shaven slit, a thin strip of hair like a runway along her.

He could smell her from his position at her breast, he slowly placed butterfly kisses in a trail as he moved towards her sex. Sooner than he expected, he was lip to lip with her. He slowly moved his tongue out to explore and found that he liked it. A slightly spicy smell, almost like cinnamon.

He felt her slowly approaching her climax just from the physical ministrations, the muscle spasms and the rapid breathing showed this quite easily so he slowed down. He eventually stopped as she was on the edge of her precipice and changed position; she had her back to his chest, feeling his hardness poking into her lower back. He slowly took his weapon out from his boxers and let it enter her slowly. He heard her moan as she clamped down around his penis and he almost came right there.

"Keep going slow Asuna, I don't want this to end so quickly" mumbled Naruto as he pulled back and entered her again, deeper this time.

That was enough for Asuna, she exploded from within, her juices leaking all over the bed as Naruto joined her soon after.

Naruto looked at her slowly recovering form and had to act fast. He pulled the kunai from under the bed and gave her what he wished he could have given her before. A ruby red necklace.

Naruto stared at the corpse for a while before opening his mouth, trying to form words. He couldn't. She was the daughter of the Feudal Lord from the Land Of Lightning. Eliminating her was clearly a message to enemy nations that Kumogakure had angered someone and they were after repentance.

Composing himself, Naruto clothed himself again. He pulled the window open and looked out into the tree. He saw two things, a small white flower, and a rather old arm handing it to him.

"Go give it to her kid," muttered Jiraiya as he looked away from Naruto. His usually bright blue eyes were dulled slightly. Not really a change in color but the attitude behind them was dampened.

Naruto approached her last resting place and placed the flower into her hair. He had no idea what it was but why understand something that does not need it.

"Sorry, Asuna" said Naruto sombrely as he walked to the window and jumped out. Landing on the floor with a rather heavy thump, he collapsed. The mental strain of what he'd just done was too much. He waited for his head to come into contact with concrete but it never came. What it did come into contact with was a solid chest and a strong pair of arms enveloping him in a hug.

"Let it out Naruto, I know this is hard" whispered Jiraiya as he felt the young man cry into his chest. 16 years' worth of pent up tears being blasted into his clothing but Jiraiya didn't care, this was his godson after all.

"Remember Naruto, I'm always here for you, no matter where you are"

XxX

The world's most infamous author of fine erotic literature was in a private meeting. But it wasn't staying too private.

"Tsunade I'm telling you, this is not normal. His level of control is beyond that of anyone else his age with Demon Chakra. That Gaara kid wasn't able to control one tail of it ever; his circumstances were stacked against him higher than the Hokage Monument. Naruto on the other hand was able to control that at age 12. He's 15 now and is almost capable of managing 4 tails."

Tsunade listened to Jiraiya's tale with great interest. This was the first time he had had the audacity to actually try _bragging_ about the fact her surrogate grandson was capable of the equivalent of holding a Demon such as Kyuubi over a barrel and taking it roughly from behind. Her eyebrow started switching involuntarily as her temple started to pulse ominously.

"Jiraiya, are you telling me you _encouraged_ this to happen." Spat Tsunade uneasily

Jiraiya's demeanour changed then, he stiffened slightly and his eyes went up hastily and back down to focus on Tsunade's annoyed visage.

"I did for a time; note that I said almost capable of handling 4 tails." At this point Jiraiya started undoing his rather large amount of clothing and armor.

"Jiraiya, I swear, if this is _another_ of your perverted tricks I _will_ separate you from what makes you a man and then remove what little is left of your dignity."

Jiraiya didn't say anything, he didn't need to. There was a large, grapefruit sized, scar on his chest right above his sternum. But what caught Tsunade's attention even more was the sudden difference in shape of her teammate's chest. She had seen him without a shirt often enough to know his sternum did not bend inward. The scar had risen in several places where muscle was and turned an even darker shade than it had been. He seemed to be in great pain from the mere exposure of it to air.

'_That is not natural it looks almost…'_

"Demonic, right? Trust me, I could smell the flesh burning and bubbling. There had to have been the obvious extreme heat and I swear there was some kind of acid in it."

Jiraiya seemed to be reading her thoughts, but he didn't become the head of ANBU Intel without learning the tricks of the trade. People always misunderstood that the title Sannin was just that. A Title. He still had an official job but was more famous for his moonlighting as an author than as a ninja. It was almost a perfect cover. He was the Elemental Countries' highest ranking field operative.

"It's exactly what you're thinking. I pushed Naruto a bit too hard with his Demon Chakra training, he pulled out the fourth tail and this happened. I've now got the world's best and worst reminder of a student." Muttered Jiraiya as he pulled his armor back on.

"That scar wasn't just from penetration, it's a chakra burn, how on this earth did you survive that!" said Tsunade

"Easy, I still haven't managed to motorboat that fabulous rack of yours" said Jiraiya, ducking the inevitable chakra enhanced punch that was coming towards him.

'_Maybe I shouldn't tell her about me dying twice while on the operating table'_

XxX

A/N: Welcome all to my last Naruto fanfiction. It's been in progress for the past aeon and a half, but it's finally done. The whole story is written, so barring anything going wrong with my hard drive, it will be finished. This chapter is terribly short, but the proceeding ones are much larger.

Read and review, they are always appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

XxX

"SUMMONING TECHNIQUE: TWO GREAT SAGES!"

The 6 realms of Pain stood glaring silently into the cavernous blackness. The pipe his former master had been forced into had been demolished through the usage of his Animal Realm's Grand Bull. This was not a shock to Pain, whose eyes of lineage had seen to the edge of the infinite in this world and back again.

The 50 meter tall bull had charged straight into the wall, causing the brittle concrete that supported the buildings around this wide, water filled clearing. Ame was known globally for its rain that came every Sunday that filled every gap of the city. A true watery city.

Something that came close to causing him to twitch with nervousness was the reaction he got from his teacher. Jiraiya had emerged from the darkness of the pipe as the pipe began to be crushed by the bull. The bull had promptly been launched a far distance back, as on impact, it exploded into a cloud of thick steam. Pain had not seen Jiraiya appear, he had felt the man's movements in the air currents. Only now had he gotten a glimpse of the elusive Toad Sage.

And it wasn't pretty.

Jiraiya stood proudly on the crest of the water, his sandals hovering slightly on top of the surface thanks to chakra enhanced surface tension. His attire had not changed in the slightest; this wasn't some kid's manga where the hero miraculously managed to change clothes simply by unleashing his awesomeness. No… what had changed was Jiraiya himself. His skin had small pustules coating it like pebbledash, a somewhat more matt like finish to his already calloused skin and the two most obvious differences. His eyes and his shoulders. His eyes had changed to a sharp yellow color, a shade reminding him of rapeseed; the pupil itself had aligned itself horizontally across his iris into a slightly curved rectangle. All these slowly faded as he stepped out from the pipe except from the 'guests' he had perched like parrots on his shoulders.

On his shoulders, he held what appeared at first glance to simply be a couple of plush toys. It wasn't until the apparently female one started an argument with Jiraiya that Pain realized just what those two were.

"Jira! What did I tell you about summoning us like this! I was just cooking dinner and now I have to work out, it's not becoming of a lady toa…" "Oh shut up you old bat, its good to see you Jiraiya, how long has it been since you came for tea? I told you that I wanted the second version of those books but noooo…" "You doddering old pervert! Why did I even marry you? My mother said your eyes were too close together but no sir, I married you because you treated me right" "MA! For Pete sake! Jira called us to fight and you argue with me!" "Why you hypocritical old frog!" "I RESENT THAT COMMENT!"

Jiraiya wanted to continue looking badass but unfortunately, he was denied that pleasure by having to interrupt the warring factions operating in the region of his shoulders.

"Ma, Pa. Sorry for spoiling your dinner but I had to call you. I needed someone to be a catalyst for the transformation and with the both of you it really helps."

"Ah it's not problem sonny, now, who's the enemy who forced you to call us out?" asked Pa, the elder of the two toads.

"That would be him," said Jiraiya pointing over to the 6 bodies

"Which one?"

"All of them" muttered Jiraiya "Say hello to the Wielder Of The Rinnegan, The Six Paths Of Pain"

Pa and Ma could only look in shock at the six bodies. They did not know the names but from the appearances, it was a just a matter of elimination before guessing who was who.

Asura Realm, a strangely smiling man with no hair. Heavily built and with what appeared to be a spiked helmet. A couple of bumps outside of the body's normal musculature showed he was concealing something, but it didn't match anything they'd seen before.

Animal Realm, an apathetic man with hair reaching his lower back. Piercings along his chin, under each eye and one between the eyes. With a hairstyle that could easily be mistaken as feminine if he were to actually try to be female and a lithe build; this realm is not for combat.

Naraka Realm, an old weathered man. Built and bred in times of war with a grizzled appearance to match. Medium length hair spiked up with his Rain Headband. Piercings in an arrow formation from the bridge of his nose to his cheeks on each side. 2 spikes were driven into the flesh of each ear, resulting in an oddly elf-like appearance.

Preta Realm, a young man of rotund capacity. Hair slicked back and tied off with his Rain Headband. His piercings stuck in his ears similarly to Naraka. Another two were underneath his eyes and a single piercing was below his entire bottom lip.

Human Realm, the realm with the longest hair and the oddest piercings. An athlete's physique and a young body. A diagonal bar ran through his nose with two circular drops under his eyes. Almost like tears. Ironic, the only realm to cry is Human.

Finally, Deva Realm. A large amount of piercings along the edges of his ears, from lobe to top. A pair of snakebites adorned his lower lip and 3 piercings were horizontal along his nose. His spiky hair looking so gravity-defying it was almost as if it had been molded into shape.

Only two things linked these 6 bodies together. Their collective usage of the Rinnegan eyes and their unnaturally uniform hair color. A bright orange, beyond strawberry blonde and delving into the realms of lunacy.

"Master Jiraiya… I am afraid" said Deva Realm in a melancholic tone "that the time has come for you to forfeit your life" continued Asura Realm, in the exact same voice "to the God of this world" finished Animal Realm

"Why are you so obsessed with this 'God' thing? No mortal is a God" called Jiraiya

"That is where you are wrong Teacher, I was _always_ a God." Said Deva as he and the other realms assembled into a line. "Now… feel the wrath of God!"

The six realms knew what to do; they assumed a pyramid formation of 3 in front, then 2 then 1.

Jiraiya saw this wall of flesh and piercings running at him and decided enough was enough. It was time to play hard ball.

The female toad on his shoulder became still, never moving, not even to breathe. Then Jiraiya felt it.

A new source, one of pure nature was entering him via a small chakra hole located in his shoulder joint. This was beyond that of normal humans, and even past the level of the rumored 'Master Shinobi'. This was power relinquished to only one every generation. This; was Senjutsu.

"Sage Mode!" uttered Jiraiya as he awaited his former pupil.

The warts came back to his face; his fingers and toes became webbed again. And those eyes, they changed back into the eyes of the toads. This was Jiraiya's final stand, and he was going with a bang.

Jiraiya could feel the water around him vibrating, the speed increasing ever so slowly, as the 6 men approached him. His hands started forming seals, melding his chakra into complex shapes within his own body.

"Tornado Of Spines!" called the elder man as the chakra finished its pattern and the technique was completed. The already adequate hair on his head grew to inhuman lengths and started to coil itself around him. This length of hair was hardened to a near steel-like density and was spiked in such a way that it made piranhas seem tame.

The paths of Pain were already making their way into an alternative attack formation, approaching from above and about to enter via a gap in the top of the tornado. Naraka Pain entered into the fray first. He drew his fist back to allow some momentum to build up as he jumped into the air above Jiraiya.

As Naraka entered the small gap above Jiraiya, Naraka realized that the older man was grinning to himself. The tornado's intensity increased to thrice as much as it was before. The internal winds and the spikes soon started ripping into the skin of Naraka, his flesh being scraped into a fine paste.

Or at least it would have, had Naraka not used a Substitution as soon as the spiny hair had entered his body.

'_Dammit!' _thought Jiraiya as he saw the burly figure of Asura charge at him. Jiraiya prepared for the impact into the side of his tornado, creating a small amount of hair under his feet to act as a springboard back into the air. But Deva had other plans.

"Shinra Tensei" said Deva in that monotonous voice of his as he extended his hand towards the tornado of flesh and hair. A sudden impulse of concentrated nothingness swept forwards from that hand. It bit into the tornado and sent it's human core flying backwards at a rather impressive rotation speed.

'_Focus on a single point; If I get disoriented…' _thought Jiraiya as he saw his estimated landing zone. A large lump of rock making a floating island in this sea of rain. He could see a vague shape following him. The sheer size of it labeled it immediately as Asura.

Jiraiya touched down on the island like true ninja should. He entered into a roll to redirect his momentum before entering his Gamaken stance. Asura soon entering his own battle range and wide stance. The large body made the fighting stance seem that much more impressive. But not to someone like Jiraiya who, while smaller in both girth and height, was used to fighting opponents of all shapes and sizes.

Asura decided to use his larger size the way a fighter always should. To his advantage. He leaned forward extremely quickly and head-butted the older man in front of him. Jiraiya was nearly caught off guard by this act, bending with the force to limit the damage to a bruised head.

'_Jeez…how is this fatty this fast?' _

Jiraiya felt inside his mouth as he bent downwards, finding that usual squidgy tooth he kept for emergencies. With a pull, he pulled this out and raised himself to his full height. A quick finger flick towards Asura later; and a miniature smokescreen surrounded Asura's head.

Jiraiya circled the Realm of Pain quickly, cautious in his movements so as not to fall victim to the traps of the other Realms. They seemed content to stand as a circumference to the fight. Not interrupting but not allowing escape.

'_What are they doing? Just looking at me like that'_

What Jiraiya neglected to see was Animal covertly forming seals under the cover of his Akatsuki mantle.

As Jiraiya reached the blind spot behind Asura, he sent a punch that had been reinforced through his whole leg, side and shoulder into the back of Asura's head.

The loud slap of skin on skin echoed around the clearing as the two forces collided. Asura's hand extended outwards, grasping Jiraiya's fist without even turning his head.

'_How did he just see me! That smokescreen has irritants derived from chilli peppers in it, no human should be able to see through that. And the angle… it's too perfect. That's a textbook block. What is this man!'_

Asura continued on with his assault, using the other hand to grasp under Jiraiya's armpit. He threw Jiraiya over his shoulder almost as easily as he may have lifted a child, letting the older man skid across the floor roughly.

Jiraiya stood up and faced back at the eternally smiling man, that grin becoming slightly unnerving in its unwaveringness.

Animal had already finished his seals at this point, chakra buzzing in the air as the summoning matrix connected with this time and space. Soon enough, the sky above the small island darkened.

A large dome had taken the place of the majority of the sky above Jiraiya, hollow but archaic in design and enormous enough to surround him with plenty of room inside. Jiraiya looked at his opponent, the large man staring back at him intently.

"Descend" murmured Animal

The dome crashed and fell around the two, this pair had already got drawn into their own fight. They had taken the verbal command as a signal and had attacked at that moment. Now, here they both stood, encased in a dome which was gradually sinking where the edges were on water.

Asura and Jiraiya faced each other in the dark, slight cracks provided a small amount of light. The kind of soft light that was used on early mornings to acclimatize night eyes. No words would be exchanged here, none were needed.

Asura charged, using the bright yellow eyes in front of him as a target. He let fly with a right handed punch aimed at 6 inches under those eyes. The dark seemed to mess with the large mans aim, as the punch struck air.

'_Damn… I could hear that punch's snap loud and clear' _thought Jiraiya as he ducked and launched a high kick at Asura's chin. This kick was blocked by a well clenched fist and a hammering blow from the Realm. Jiraiya's leg flew wide and kicked into the edge of the dome.

"Fuck!" yelled Jiraiya as he felt his ankle dislocate; then he realized his error. He quickly put his ankle back in position with a grunt of pain and jumped away as soon as possible. In the darkness, the spark that occurred was easy as pie to spot. There was a small time delay between the spark and the result.

The result noted was an explosion loud enough to deafen Jiraiya permanently had Fukusaku and Shima not stuck their tongues in his ears to block out the noise. The explosion was the proof of the pudding, showing the strength of this dome, unscathed from its trial by fire. In the aftermath glow of the molten slag that was part of the ground, Jiraiya could see what had happened.

Asura's head was filled to the brim with machinery; the top of his skull was open with multiple spiky protrusions showing where it had opened and silos dotting the flat top of his head above his eyes.

Jiraiya looked at this man… no this monstrosity. It used to be human, now it had its innards replaced with machinery. Was this how Pain worked?

'_I'm gonna have to get outta here and find out' _

Jiraiya used the momentary confusion of the explosions aftermath to push chakra to his feet.

"Blink"; and he disappeared into the shadows. Asura looked around, having to rely on his own perspective.

Blink was a technique that was known throughout the shinobi yet very few actually knew its name. It was an extremely short range teleportation technique, characterized by its minimal chakra usage and the fact that when someone approaches you and uses Blink, if you blink, you'll miss it.

It was a technique made exclusively for battle evasion.

"I can't let something like you continue to live, sorry." said a voice into Asura's ears. There was a small breeze as air started to move and a loud crash as Asura's face impacted into the rock below.

"Let's see what this thing can withstand truly." uttered Jiraiya as he readied himself against the descending dome. His legs were tensed as he aimed his kick.

It struck squarely at the apex of the dome, the keystone of the shell. This caused a mass shatter along the dome's ley lines which in turn led to widespread destruction of the dome and a tenuous silence to occur in this segregated part of the city.

"He will attack with ninjutsu. Be aware" said the 5 standing Pains in unison

Jiraiya emerged from the rubble looking little worse than when he did originally, his hands quickly forming seals

'_Monkey, Dog, Ram, Boar, Dragon, Dog, Rabbit, Tiger'_

"Blind Toad's Elegy!"

Oil erupted from Jiraiya's skin, coating him in the thick black liquid. He swiped his hand through the air as if he hoped to cut something.

What did happen was that the oil's volume increased exponentially as it shot off Jiraiya's arm like a salvo of missiles. Its aim was just increased by the fact that, even after the size increase, the velocity didn't change at all. It soon found its target in the form of the 5 battle capable Pains.

Oil coated the 5 men standing opposite from Jiraiya, sticking their limbs together and permeating their eyes. Each of them soon received instructions as 4 of them entered the water below them. The single one remaining was Deva, who closed his eyes.

Jiraiya touched down onto the surface heavily as Deva once again focused on him. With his hands in a Ram seal, Deva let his chakra flare.

"Shinra Tensei!" said Deva as the chakra broke free of his control and emerged.

The wave of repellant wiped all the oil from Deva, leaving not a drop on his body.

Jiraiya heard a slurping noise behind him, ears twitching as they tried to recognize the sound. He turned around and saw Preta dragging Naraka to the surface. He hurriedly looked back and saw Animal and Human on top of the water, flanking Deva.

"Jiraiya, this is unlike you. For a man who believed in a time where all people would understand each other, you're using the wrong method." Said Human

'_How can he have the Rinnegan? That man is definitely Yahiko!' _Thought Jiraiya

"Concentrate Jira, if you start thinking of naked ladies at a time like this then you _will not_ end up in the nice place." Said Shima in Jiraiya's ear.

"Lightning Dragon!" called Deva from across the pool at Jiraiya. The air literally turned to electricity as static charged itself with a thin beam of chakra acting as its capacitor. This beam of chakra was branched in multiple directions, showing its difficulty but increasing the amount of charge possible.

The dragon imagery was just an aesthetic choice.

"Blink!" called Jiraiya, a small amount of chakra gathering in his feet.

Jiraiya disappeared temporarily and reappeared 10 feet away, behind Animal and Naraka. Chakra already charging in his hand, beyond the scope of his normal technique. This was a little something that Jiraiya had made after seeing Naruto's Great Ball Rasengan.

'_Take the chakra… rotate…power…expand… contain…' _,thought Jiraiya as the Rasengan grew, morphing into a shape beyond the Great Ball Rasengan, soon resembling a large boulder of pure chaotic chakra.

"Super Great Ball Rasengan!" called Jiraiya as he forced the boulder into the backs of both Animal and Naraka at the same time.

Naraka had formed hand seals as soon as he saw Jiraiya disappear, bringing his personal weapon to the fight, The King of Hell. This discouragingly normal summon was simply a giant head decorated with various pieces of cloth to hide its mouth and, presumably, hair. The cloth that covered its mouth soon disappeared back into its smoky abyss, revealing the gap in reality that was its mouth.

This large semi-human engulfed Naraka quicker than Jiraiya could even comprehend and disappeared into the ground. Jiraiya quickly turned his attention to pushing the Rasengan fully into Animal.

The winds of the Rasengan soon raged around Animal's body, shredding the Akatsuki mantle and tearing into his muscle. There had been no chance of a substitution, the attack had Blitzkrieged him. The sudden power and speed meant there was no chance to escape uninjured.

Jiraiya felt the skin give way beneath his palms and grinned in success.

"2 down, 4 to go!"

His small moment of success was extinguished as soon as he felt himself lurch forwards. He concentrated through the large sphere and saw what he had missed. Preta was standing in front of the Rasengan and was slowly absorbing it, eating the chakra so to speak.

"I am disappointed, Master" gurgled a voice from the severely injured Animal as Preta finished eating the Rasengan. "You are supposed to be my superior" finished Preta. Human burst from behind Preta like a phantom, his aim entirely clear and currently unblockable.

Jiraiya was still airborne and on a collision course with Human to land. He spun his leg around, letting the weight of the metal under his sole carry him around. He saw Human get closer and closer, but went for another rotation.

Human was on him too quickly. A solidly placed punch was landed on Jiraiya in his groin. His face contorted in pain as he felt his gentlemen vegetables crunch against his hipbone. The sheer force of the punch sent him into the air, directly onto the wall.

Even with the excruciating pain he was going through, Jiraiya still kept his instincts. He felt his feet touch the wall and attached himself with chakra, hanging precariously until he bent down and used his hands too. His centre of gravity started to reassert itself as he waited until the sickening pain in his stomach had relapsed. The quad of Pain's stood and waited on a large piece of ground that could pass for an island.

No orders were passed between the four but actions were inevitable. Naraka summoned the King Of Hell to rise, again slowly. The mouth opened to reveal 2 figures inside of it. One hulking and disjointed in its movements, the other was lithe and graceful. Animal and Asura had been reanimated and healed.

The two walked out of their cramped container and stretched out, hearing loud clicks as joints popped back into place and muscles relaxed. Animal started forming a long stream of seals, taken slowly, almost taunting in the speed he was taking. The other Pain's, except Animal, took a step back to get out of the way. They knew what was coming, and soon enough, so would Jiraiya.

"Pa, Ma, I hope you've paid attention to this fight. I need you to make sure Konoha gets this." Said Jiraiya, now he could open his mouth without the risk of vomiting.

"Lil Jiraiya, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you weren't planning on going back after this fight" said Shima,

"I might not be Ma… If this man can resurrect his dead bodies, there has to be a trick to how he does it. It's my job as an ANBU Commander to find it out and report it for the good of Konoha."

A large cloud of smoke interrupted the older man, wisps traveling past his face as something emerged. A beast, and no normal summoned beast. Hardened carapace, claws attached to what could only be described at cheeks and multiple sets of legs.

The 50 foot monstrosity reared his head up and roared as it tore across the large stretch of water. A giant centipede had been brought into existence .It's legs moved so fast, surface tension wasn't even an issue when combined with its natural flotation.

Jiraiya looked at goliath approaching him, eyes closing momentarily.

'_That thing has armor, weapons, size and speed to its advantage. I mustn't back down from this. Konoha is depending on me…'_

"THEY ALL DEPEND ON ME!" yelled Jiraiya, eyes snapping open.

Ma looked at Jiraiya with a look of disgust.

"Jira, what's the point in that? Yelling isn't going to win this fi…" Ma was cut off in mid-sentence as a quiet retching noise started.

Pa was hunched over from his sitting position, leaning against Jiraiya's head huffing and puffing like he had just had a severe workout. His throat started to expand slowly, his gullet becoming enlarged beyond his body. Something was in there, and would be joining the group pretty shortly.

"Pa… Jiraiya! What have you _done_" said Shima, looking at her husband.

"I brought in a trump card Ma… this is a little something me and Pa found in that waterfall cave in Mt Myoboku."

*Ru-RU-RUUUUUUU* came a final yell as Pa's throat ejected its contents; straight into Jiraiya's palm.

Shiny and covered in toad vomit, was a large black staff, smooth to touch; 6 foot long; with a slightly curved, 2 foot blade at the end. No designs or fancy decoration, it epitomized everything the toads believed in. Its practicality, strength and lineage were what made it great, not its fashion .Shima saw this with lights in her eyes, and she recognized this weapon. The legendary weapon wielded by the first Toad Sage as he gave life to Mount Myoboku and took it back from the snakes and alligators that had inhabited it beforehand.

"The halberd of the bold." whispered Shima in reverence.

Jiraiya spun the halberd around in his palm, feeling its solid, oaken texture beneath his fingers. The weight was perfect for the man, heavy but balanced, long but agile. This was a weapon worthy of a toad sage. It resumed its grip in his palm, blade shining from the fine mist of water that was now on the halberd.

The roar of the centipede as it closed in was enough to bring the sages out of their reverie. It was now mere meters away from them, its claws entering the wall to climb the vertical distance.

Jiraiya's eyes focused in on the centipede, blocking out the noise and flailing limbs. He was timing the head's bobbing.

'_Up, down, up, down, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, got it.' _Thought Jiraiya as he nodded to himself to keep the rhythm.

The elder ninja pushed chakra into his legs, letting the muscles absorb the energy as he leapt low but far. Jiraiya felt a sharp pain in his leg, warm and wet. He didn't bother looking behind; he knew he had been too low. The large hooked claw of the centipede had sliced into his leg tendons.

'_Sage mode will help heal that… shouldn't be too bad' _

Jiraiya touched down on the back of the creature's neck and started his attack. The centipede let out a high pitched squeal as Jiraiya embedded the staff into the tender flesh on the back of the neck.

'_That's right Pain… I know you're watching this. This cut is the first in a long line of ones you'll feel by my blade'_

He felt the armor give up a small fight to not be cut, but it lost this fight almost immediately. The armor split almost like butter. The leaf shinobi knew this was a golden chance; he hopped onto the armor and ran towards the tail, halberd still embedded. The squealing sound that the centipede emitted was more than enough proof to validate his movements.

"Make like a banana and split, Monster"

A soft splash echoed as Jiraiya touched down on the water below him, followed by a hollow, sucking sound as the centipede hit the water. The water being displaced soon replaced itself with a resounding crash.

Ma looked at Jiraiya, eyes boggling.

"Jira… I can't believe that you made _that_ joke _now_; are you off your nut?" said Ma amazedly.

Jiraiya felt his shoulders slump, he was feeling really badass until after he had finished saying that.

"Thanks Ma…"

"Enough! Come Master Jiraiya," said Deva "Our battle continues"

Deva raised his arms, as if praying to another god. His chakra concentrating underneath himself and the other realms. Slowly, they started to rise into the sky like a flock of red clouded ravens. Deva's eyes closed as his full concentration went on keeping the realms in the air and allowing them to move how they liked

Jiraiya looked up at the group in the sky, seeing the surreal invitation before him. Aerial fighting without a way to fly? It sounded even more preposterous now that he thought about it. But would he give it a damn good go?

Hell yes.

Jiraiya crouched down, ignoring the indignant shrieks of Ma about her vertigo, and leapt into the air to meet them.

Animal swept through multiple seals, summoning a large hawk into existence. Its caw echoed through the clearing as it tried to find its target.

As he rose through their ranks, he saw one of the 6 was exceptionally close to him and he made this one his target specifically. Its wrinkles and withered body made it fairly obvious this one was Naraka. A loud caw was once again heard to echo.

Grabbing the black and red mantle at that speed caused an awful lot of momentum; Jiraiya was spun so that his feet ended on Naraka's shoulders. Naraka swung a punch at the sage standing on him, Jiraiya dodging by lifting his foot up and dropping it onto Naraka's head. With the eldest realm in pain, Jiraiya looked around and saw the large hawk coming at him.

He stared at it, not separating eye contact with the bird, as it came ever closer. As the bird got within 10 feet of the duo, Jiraiya made his move. Jumping off of Naraka and onto the hawk as a springboard, he leapt at the largest target. Asura.

The hawk crashed into Naraka, taking them both to the ground as Naraka struggled against what he perceived as an enemy.

Asura on the other hand, was now struggling against a genuine enemy. Jiraiya was crawling over his large body with the agility of a spider. Asura motioned to Human for assistance which was soon granted.

Human moved behind Asura, where Jiraiya had found a rhythm to dodging attacks. He punched at the toad sage, not expecting him to take the blow and let go. Again, he was also not expecting Jiraiya to stab through Asura's foot and swing around to kick at the other realm behind him.

Human was forced back by the blow as Asura shook the blade out of his foot. Jiraiya formed hand seals.

"Wind Bullet!" yelled Jiraiya as he pushed himself up with the pressure of the blast. He expected to go way above the pair of realms he was fighting but just about matched them in height. He looked down and saw Preta, just closing his mouth.

'_He must have eaten my technique… it lost power as he took it all in'_

Jiraiya stabbed the halberd into Asura's back, giving him somewhere to keep his footing and causing pain at the same time.

Jiraiya punched the unfortunate realm in the back of the neck, an almost deadly rabbit punch. Certainly deadly to anyone else but the strongest defensive ninja, but Asura fell into that category. Asura just turned his head to look at Jiraiya before punching him into Human.

The taller realm grabbed hold on Jiraiya in a double arm lock, immobilizing him temporarily.

"Master Jiraiya… a god cannot be hurt by mortal hands" said Human to Jiraiya calmly as Asura rushed them.

Pulling the halberd from his back, Asura charged at Jiraiya. He threw the halberd to the ground where it stuck into the ground and cocked his fist. As he reached Jiraiya, he made use of the momentum he had gained and punched the sage straight into the stomach. Jiraiya gasped as he felt some ribs shatter from the blow. Asura followed up the assault with several blows to the face and a kick that sent Jiraiya into the air.

'_Finally!' _thought Jiraiya as he corrected himself, hissing as he moved his ribs but pushing through the pain.

He looked at his choice of targets quickly, seeing Asura and Human about to rise and pursue him.

'_They fight so perfectly…it's too good for them all to be working together. But… how can they be working like this… it's like they're the same per-.' _thought Jiraiya, a look of satisfaction on his face.

Said look was promptly wiped from his face as he felt a hand roughly grab his shoulder. Jiraiya swiftly grabbed the hand with his opposite hand, moved his other hand to be under the attacker's armpit and threw the attacker over his shoulder.

He saw Naraka appear over his shoulder and fly in the direction he was looking in, Animal's direction. The old man impacted with the long haired man, knocking them both the floor. Jiraiya saw his chance.

He let gravity do its work as he fell towards his previous attackers. Asura readied a large punch to Jiraiya as he fell. As they were about to impact, Jiraiya pushed down on the fist with his legs, overpowering the large realm and forcing him downwards into Human.

Using the airtime gained from the springboard effect, he flew at his target. Deva Realm. With only 1 realm as defence, the apparent leader was left almost wide open. Preta realm was the only one still close enough to do anything and even that was only close enough to absorb his ninjutsu attacks.

This was about as perfect a chance got in a ninja battle.

Jiraiya saw Deva tense as he drew closer, the sage taking a kunai out of his vest. Adopting the kunai in a reverse grip, the blade pointing downwards from his fist as opposed to above it, he drove its point into the realm's shoulder blade.

Deva's eyes opened in shock, his head turning and allowing him to see the wound. The blade of the knife was no longer visible; the force that the jump had given Jiraiya had the knife almost buried to the small ring at its end.

'_Damn it… I missed the heart' _thought Jiraiya as he started his descent to the ground.

The shock that Jiraiya had caused Deva was more than enough to throw off his concentration completely. The entire group was making a very hasty journey towards the water.

Jiraiya landed heavily, jarring his joints and freezing him in place temporarily. The realms of Pain on the other hand, landed gently, Deva's gravity powers reactivating in time for them to get a cushioned landing.

They took advantage of this opportunity, charging forward. Asura split from the group and ran towards the piece of rock that the halberd had stuck in previously.

Human and Preta launched a simultaneous blow, both hits connecting with Jiraiya's left shoulder at the same moment. A loud crack was heard as the joint snapped and was almost turned to powder by the force.

"AHHH!" yelled Jiraiya, his face on the edge of agony. That blow was beyond the defensive boost of sage mode. He was forced to his knees by the pain, coughs tearing at the back of his throat.

"Jiraiya! Jira!" called the duo of toads on his shoulders.

Deva saw an opportunity. He turned to Jiraiya and extended his hand before saying his technique.

"Shinra Tensei!"

Jiraiya felt the unnatural repelling of gravity as he was forced backwards, unable to resist between his pain and the speed of the move occurring.

He felt himself leave the ground and travel backwards, the light soon turning to inky blackness as he entered the same sewer pipe he had been forced into earlier. He hit the back of the pipe as the light turned into a small postage stamp in the distance.

"Jeez… how ironic" said Jiraiya, gritting his teeth as he picked himself up. "Ma, Pa, think you can gum my arm to my side? If I have it flailing around, I'll probably lose it."

"Ok Jira" replied Shima as her and Fukusaku started to spit toad oil at the arm. Not the same oil as before, a more sticky mixture akin to napalm in texture. This stuck to his coat and made a very solid cast.

"Thanks guys" said Jiraiya as he started running towards the light, getting used to his new arm position as he ran.

Outside, Asura had grabbed the halberd. Holding it in his hand, he kept a firm grip on the long staff handle as he ran towards the pipe. He was about to enter the sewer as the point guard when the halberd reacted to who was holding it.

The halberd was by no means sentient, it had no consciousness. What it did do was recognize its wielder. Asura felt his hand getting hot, looking down; he saw the halberd slowly entering him through the palm.

"Master Jiraiya, you have found yourself an interesting weapon" said Asura, watching the blade enter his body with no apparent injuries anywhere on his body. "But it seems that it now belongs to me"

Asura continued onwards fists ready to cause pain as he heard a yell. A beast-like roar came from within the pipes, resonating perfectly with the walls. Surely most of Ame heard it. It took him a few seconds to process what it was before it quite literally struck him.

It was the toad sage battle cry.

Jiraiya had emerged from the darkness, using the cover to build up a vast amount of speed. As he was about to leave the darkness, he had leapt and was in the midst of a spin kick before yelling and creating an opening.

Gai Maito would have cried for youth if he had been there.

As the powerful kick the sage had launched landed on Asura's chest, the large realm's head exploded in a shower of brain matter and muscle. From the mess came a long object propelled upwards; Jiraiya caught it as Asura fell backwards, letting Jiraiya carry on forwards.

"The halberd of the bold never _belongs_ to anybody. People have wielded it, but no-one will ever own it." Said Jiraiya as he stood over Asura's body; half expecting it to get back up immediately.

'_That won't keep it down long. It didn't destroy the whole head, just the top half' _thought Jiraiya, his mind adjusting to the concept that debilitating wounds were a minimum requirement in this fight.

Jiraiya didn't let his mind wander too much; he sunk into an even lower stance than usual. His steps seemed like huge lunges forward, quickly moving in a single direction but could change direction quickly.

'_Gamaken Evasive Stance' _thought Jiraiya as he approached the group, weaving in and out as fast as he could.

The major factor in him using this stance was in its name. It was the most evasive stance that the toad sage had. By applying chakra to his joints, along with the confusing movements, the stance's greatest asset was formed.

'_Afterimages' _thought Deva, seeing the masses of Jiraiya afterimages that took up all the space between the realms.

The movements of the afterimages were enough to confuse the realms of pain sufficiently, as not 10 seconds after he started, Naraka was on his knees. The realm's calves were bleeding horrendously, staining the water with the red liquid. 2 long slashes along each muscle showed where they had been severed.

"Naraka… Summon Enma and heal yourself and Asura. We shall make do until you get back" said Deva to the injured realm. A small nod signified he understood as the King Of Hell rose from the water and swallowed Naraka and Asura.

Jiraiya continued his assault, aiming for Preta. The large man dodged all of his attacks; seemingly too fast for a man his size. As he fought Preta, Animal was forming more seals to draw from his seemingly infinite source of chakra. Animal brought forth 6 small creatures, each looking similar to a leech. He threw two into the mouth of Enma while throwing one each to Deva and Human. Animal placed his to his lips and swallowed the creature whole. He saw Preta edging his way towards him so he ran forward.

Animal drew closer to the fighting pair, careful not to be hit in the crossfire. Seeing an opening as Jiraiya ducked down for a kick, he ran forward and forced the leech into Preta's now open mouth. Preta swallowed before the kick came and retreated back with Animal.

Jiraiya growled in annoyance "Get back here lardy!"

Deva saw that all 4 of the fighting realms had now swallowed the leeches. He was ready to change tack.

"Bansho Tenin" said Deva quietly.

Jiraiya ran at the group but found himself hitting air. The group had sunk under the water and were showing no signs of needing to come up for air any time soon.

Jiraiya glared at the set from above the water.

'_They must have caught on… the Gamaken Evasive Stance relies on a trick of the light. The water must refract the light, ruining it' _ thought Jiraiya. "Pa, Ma, is there anyway you can help me breathe underwater?"

"'Fraid not Jira… sage mode comes with gills sold separately" said Ma "Hold your breath?"

Jiraiya sighed "For a toad sage, this is possibly the worst thing I could do…"

"Suck it up… you made my vertigo play up, you are going down there whether you want to or not" said Ma sternly. Pa looked away bashfully, his wife was in a mood and it wasn't likely he could help.

Jiraiya took in a deep breath, closing his mouth and nose with chakra to stop it leaking out and dived down into the water. His lack of a usable arm became all too noticeable as he started flailing for a few seconds as he worked out how to swim like this with the halberd in his hand.

He felt something weird in his hand. Not a hot sensation like Asura experienced but a tightening instead. He looked closely at the halberd, using his webbed feet to propel him towards the realms. The wood of the halberd had gained furrows, making the surface look like skin after being in the water too long.

Jiraiya swung the halberd around as a test and realized what had happened. The furrows lowered the resistance of the water, the halberd had next to no problem moving in water now.

'_Maybe this thing is sentient after all' _thought Jiraiya, swinging the blade into a block against Preta's kick. The portly man had used a roundhouse kick as if there was no resistance at all. Jiraiya looked closely, and felt his arm give a sharp twinge of pain before settling down to a dull throb.

'_Sage mode must have done some healing… my arm feels better'_ thought Jiraiya, testing his limb out gingerly. He looked around and saw Animal and Deva forming seals between them.

He saw bubbles emerge from their mouths but could not hear the name through the water. He didn't need to hear it though, its effect was instantaneous. Several large sharks of various species had been unleashed into the water from Animal, and 5 large sharks made of water from Deva. He heard the gnashing of teeth as they lunged for him in the water.

Water fighting never was Jiraiya's strong suit. But he managed in his own ways.

'_Summoning Technique: Mountain Toad's Stomach' _thought Jiraiya, forming hand seals and facing his palms to the sharks.

A large amount of thick pink stomach lining surrounded the group of sharks and eventually enclosing them. He could hear the squeals from inside as the water was pushed outwards and replaced by the gastric juice of the mountain toad. He focused beyond the high pitched noise and continued his charge at the 5 paths.

'_Wait… 5? That means they're all back. But where's number 6?' _ thought Jiraiya too late. A large fist hit him from below. _'Shit… I wasn't paying attention'_

The punch to his chin had caused him to open his mouth, letting his air out. Realizing his mistake too late, he had only one option. Resurface and get air before trying again. Jiraiya turned to swim upwards, but was grabbed by Asura, the realm that had hit him.

'_Gotta… get… air…' _thought Jiraiya, his pupils suddenly dilating. He saw colors, many colors and shapes too fast to comprehend. Triangles, Squares, Blue, Lines, Green, Circles, Pentagons, Red, Purple, Octagons, all things randomly and without a reason. He felt himself moving but without control, his body on autopilot while his mind was in turmoil.

Suddenly, he felt his lungs almost explode as fresh air made its way inside. He was now bobbing on the surface of the water, head held high to get as much of the clean life giving air as he could. Then he remembered where he was. He clambered onto the surface of the water, starting to get worried over his chakra supply. He leapt to the wall and started to regain his bearings, leaning on the halberd as a form of balance.

He ran up the wall until he was about 50 feet up before looking back down, seeing the 6 realms emerge from the water perfectly vertically. It was enough to disturb anyone. He looked especially closely at Asura, and saw the beast of a man holding his neck to curb the bleeding of a large gash.

"Did I do that?" asked Jiraiya to the toads on his shoulders.

"Jira… you were suffocating and started thrashing around. The halberd in your hand caught his neck by pure coincidence. To be honest, it's pure luck that you didn't die then" said Ma, eyes glazed over slightly, amazed at how close the fight came to ending then.

"It wasn't luck Ma… someone up there wants my message passed to Konoha. It's my job to give them as much info as possible" said Jiraiya.

The realms of Pain had amassed in the centre of the clearing, standing there and watching him. They didn't move, not even a single facial twitch. They had become statues.

'_Damn… that's pretty freaky'_ thought Jiraiya staring back at them _'They're not even blinking… No living human can stare that long, the eye needs to blink… wait… what if they're not…THAT'S IT!' _Jiraiya cracked a triumphant grin. He would need to write this down as soon as he got a chance. He started forming hand seals

"Summoning Technique: Battle Toad" yelled Jiraiya, bringing his usual battle partner into existence. Gama stuck to the wall along with his master, a routine they had established soon after they started working together. After all, a routine for stealth is the most important thing a peeper has.

"Thanks Gama. It's time to finish this fight" said Jiraiya, stepping onto the toads back as a support. "Pa… take the halberd back to Mt Myoboku, leave it for the next toad sage" Jiraiya placed the halberd, blunt end first, at the old toads mouth, letting him swallow it rather awkwardly.

"Jira, you'd better be coming back to Mt Myoboku with us." Said Ma sternly

"I'll try my best Ma… But that's a promise I can't make"

While the trio were talking, Animal was forming more seals. These weren't a usual summon, they were different. Forming seals of power and aggression rather than life and control, Animal continued his sequence.

As he finished, his fingers locked in the dragon seal, a loud crack was heard as six black orbs appeared, one in front of each realm. Animal unlocked his fingers and touched the orb. The orb distorted itself formed itself into a thin but long blade. Very simplistic in design but vicious looking all the same. This repeated for the other 5 orbs, each one forming a blade.

Jiraiya looked down at the scene below, seeing the weapons form and seeing the looks in the realms eyes… they were alive.

"Gama! Now!" yelled Jiraiya as he stood in the small valley between Gama's eyes. The large toad leapt into the air above the Pains, disappearing as he reached the apex of his jump and letting Jiraiya continue downwards. With a 150 metre drop to go, Jiraiya was far too high for even Deva's gravity powers to currently affect.

Normally, gravity is a cruel mistress and would have forced Jiraiya to plummet at high speed. But even the cruel can be manipulated. 5 rods in Jiraiya's red cloak spread apart from a central point near his neck. Each rod was in actuality just a thicker piece of chakra conductive fabric. By adding chakra, the fabric hardened.

In short, he gained a set of gliding wings.

"Jiraiya… you look like a squirrel when you do this" said Pa, trying to lighten the situation slightly.

"Squeak squeak, where's my nuts" replied Jiraiya dryly

"FLAMING DRAGON TECHNIQUE!" came a yell from below as Deva fired a fire dragon at the descending sage.

Jiraiya dodged the inferno by barrel rolling to the side and replied in kind yelling "Blind Toads Elegy!"

He felt the pores of his skin clog up with oil, but he kept a layer of chakra above his skin, forcing the oil to become more concentrated. As he approached 100 metres in height, he released the oil. With Jiraiya's height and the push given by the release, the majority of the clearing was covered in the oil. A large section of rock was the only part not covered with the oil.

The oil floating on the water made a semi-barrier around the rock; Jiraiya saw this and aimed his landing for that spot.

The realms of Pain responded to Jiraiya's movements and started to approach the rocky area before anything stopped them.

Jiraiya reached inside of his vest, his fingers grasping around something he'd been keeping for 4 years for just such an occasion. A medium sized scroll; battered and discolored from being next to Jiraiya's body for nearly 4 years non-stop.

Opening the scroll, Jiraiya focused his chakra in the centre before quickly turning it upside down. Pitch black flames emerged, so dark that light could not escape its surface.

Pain's bodies stopped at the flames appeared, Deva muttering its name.

"Amaterasu"

'_This is why I kept the Amaterasu, for a fight like this' _thought Jiraiya, watching the flames descend.

As the flames touched down on the surface of the water, the oil ignited. The concentration of the oil was what made the difference. The oil's flammability was tripled by the concentration, with this combined with the sheer destructive power of Amaterasu, the heat almost burnt Jiraiya out of the sky.

Every spot hit by the oil ignited in a split second. As mystical as the fire was, it was still fire, and could be strengthened by adding more material to one part of the fire triangle. Oxygen, Fuel and Heat. In this case, it was fuel.

Pain looked around him as Jiraiya started descending rapidly towards the rock, a barrier now between them and the sage. Jiraiya sat down, regaining his breath as he watched the 6 men outside of the fire.

Deva gave a small signal with his hand, a small bending of one knuckle but enough. Animal and Preta shot forward, Preta opening his mouth to absorb the fire while Animal charged right through it.

Jiraiya stared in shock at the realm, making its way dedicatedly through the flames, intent on its target. Him. He saw the skin start to melt like wax, bubbling and distorting before popping, but that did not bother him. His muscles started to cook, making a makeshift barbeque for cannibals, the smell even causing the toad sage's stomach to growl slightly.

The realm eventually broke through, still burning and alarming the toad sage, whose chakra supply was almost dangerously low at that point.

"Pa… Ma… I'm not getting out of here alive. You need to go and warn Konoha." Said Jiraiya as he avoided the burning body of Animal. Using the same scroll as before, he used a small amount of chakra and sealed the body of Animal inside it. He then gave this scroll to Shima.

"Ma, take this to Konoha's Investigations Department." Said Jiraiya "Pa… I have a message for you to take to Tsunade, and only to her. She can tell who she wants but she must the only one you tell it to. Understand?"

Upon receiving a nod from the toad, Jiraiya continued "There is no real one. Pain is alive but the body is dead"

Pa understood as Jiraiya rose to his feet. "Ma, can you leave now? Me and lil Jira will finish this ourselves" asked the old toad.

Ma nodded "Ok, I'll see you later" she said quietly "Especially you Jiraiya, you gallant lad you"

Jiraiya felt his eyes tear up slightly as he waved her off, watching her disappear back to Mt Myoboku.

"One last attack, right Jiraiya?" said Pa

"Right" replied the toad sage.

Jiraiya walked over the bank of the rock, so close that he would catch fire on a single misdirected breath of wind. Forming hand seals, Jiraiya called out "Tornado Of Spines!"

As his hair got longer, he formed a Rasengan in each hand and thrust them into the black fire in front of him.

"ARRRRRGGHHH!" screamed Jiraiya, eyes closed in pain. The fire in his hands burning his wrists and forearms but also, being dragged into the Rasengan hovering in his palm.

The wind soon picked up, the tornado sucking in the flames like a vacuum. Jiraiya rose with the tornado, acting as its control point. This monstrosity of a technique was one beyond most people's comprehension. It's very base elements were dangerous. A B-rank wind technique, an A-rank attack technique and an S-rank stolen bloodline limit. This amalgamation of techniques could have been given a name, and would be given one in the future. But now, it was nameless, a mystery to the man who claimed he was god.

"YOU DIE WITH ME, PAIN!" yelled Jiraiya, pushing the tornado towards the group.

Unable to dodge such a large attack with so little room to move, the realms of Pain were swept into the blender from hell unceremoniously. Each one went through an accelerated process of what happened to Animal, but before reaching the rotating Rasengan at the top, disappeared.

"NO!" yelled Jiraiya, feeling the last of his chakra disappear as the tornado stopped short of destroying their bodies like Animal.

He fell the 20 feet to ground that he had been hovering at, landing off balance on his feet and keeling over almost instantly.

"Jiraiya!" said Fukusaku from his perch on Jiraiya's shoulder. "Behind You!"

Jiraiya looked around and almost passed out right there and then. Enma, the King Of Hell, was there and coming out of his large abyssal mouth were 5 of the realms of Pain, each one still holding its blade with not a scratch on them.

"Pa… go…" whispered Jiraiya as he rolled over onto his back

"I'm sorry Jiraiya" said Pa, eyes crinkling as he started the hiccupping that pre-empted tears.

*bamf*

And Fukusaku was gone. Safe now in Mt Myoboku, he would pass on the message, and Pain would fall.

"How'd you like… them apples Pain?" asked Jiraiya, smiling through his exhaustion.

Jiraiya never did receive his reply, the realms had surrounded him as he spoke and ran their blades through his vital points. Heart, Jugular, Lungs, Kidney, Larynx. All 5 had been destroyed by those black blades of Pain.

As the blades were withdrawn, the blood and bile that evacuated the wounds was enough to confirm the facts.

"Here dies Jiraiya Of The Sannin, may his soul rest in peace" said Deva to the other 4. "Now… let us pray for Master Jiraiya"

XxX

The day had finally come, Naruto had been summoned to the Toad Realm of Mt Myoboku by Fukusaku and Shima for one of the most important events in the recent history of the Toads. The Memorial Service of Jiraiya and the reading of his will.

Almost the entire Royal Toad Infantry had turned out to honor Jiraiya, whose funeral was never possible. As a ninja, he lived in battle, and as a ninja, he died in battle. It was the only thing they could do to remember him.

The Oracle sat in his pool of Toad Oil, the beefy smell filling the cavernous room and having a calming effect on most of the congregation. He was the holder of all contracts and would be the one reading the will. All figures of importance were seated on a podium the size of a playing field. Mostly occupied by Gamabunta. Naruto sat beside him in full toad sage battle uniform, a testament to his new position. Tsunade had managed to wangle a few hours out of the office on a 'Diplomatic Mission' as an Emissary to the toads. She sat in her usual clothing, though it had taken Shizune several hours to convince her not to wear her black kimono.

"Toads, and our esteemed guests, Naruto Uzumaki and Tsunade Senju, we are here today to honor our Summoner Jiraiya. A man from unknown origins and an orphan of the Second Secret Shinobi War. He came to us as a child, having yet to mature, drawn by fate and handled by the passage of time. He became the Toad's greatest warrior, and our greatest loss. I prophesized that he would be our child of legend, alas I was wrong. But my beliefs are not for today. I understand that Boss Toad Gamabunta would like to say a few words." Finished the Oracle, as he motioned to the figure sat beside him.

Gamabunta looked up, his eyes closed, and he spoke in his booming voice.

"I expected great things from that lil perv ya know… he was a great man, never backed down from a fight. Or he knew I would have toasted him but he did it anyway. I don't know where that man is now, but I'm sure he's happy." Said Gamabunta. His inverted eyes starting to water slightly but to hide it, he simply blew a smoke ring to cover his face.

"Very well, now Chief Leaper Gamakichi of 5th Battalion has been granted permission to speak." Conveyed the Oracle

Gamakichi approached the podium in full battle regalia, including blade, he had no need for fancy clothes. The Toads valued practicality over style at any time.

"Yo! As you all know, I'm the boss's son. This isn't about pulling rank though. I'm here 'cause my pop's summoner was the sensei of our guest of honor, my best bud Naruto. It's thanks to them both that I managed to get strong. The big guy pulled some strings in the village and got me some training from those eyebrow freaks." This illicited some chuckles among his battalion. They had all experienced the wrath that of Maito Gai or Rock Lee at some point or another.

"What I'm trying to get at is that, well, I owe the man a lot. Now I can never repay him, so I will do the next best thing." At this point Gamakichi took off his blade, a large 6 foot broadsword, and laid it at Naruto's feet.

"I pledge my sole allegiance to the latest Toad Contract Holder, from this day on, I will answer to no man's call but your own." This shocked the toad army. It's not often that a summon would have either the gall or the stupidity to refuse a summoning call from all except one man.

"Yes yes yes, that's quite enough excitement for one minute Gamakichi. Now put your blade away and allow the Will to be read" mumbled another Toad, Gamahiro. Or as is his preferred name, the Food Cart Destroyer. Most famous for his Bring Down The House technique.

The Oracle started clearing his throat, which turned into a rather raspy cough and then into a combination of retching and choking. After all this fuss, a scroll the size of a drink can came out and into his hand.

"Now we can begin" said the Oracle as he formed a few Toad Hand Seals. And the scroll grew to become the size of a combat grade weapons summoning scroll. The only one Naruto had seen before was on that girl from Lee's teams back.

'_I'll have to ask her about that when I get home' _thought Naruto briefly.

"Very well, I shall now begin the reading. There will be no paraphrasing as tradition dictates that the person's truest thoughts are in their will." Commented the Oracle as he cleared his throat.

"_To all my little toady friends. I'm sure I've somehow died in a courageous yet completely awesome way, like attempting to motorboat that amazing bosom on Tsunade Senju, but alas, that is nothing but imagery from my dreams and imprinted into Icha Icha Forbidden. _

_Anyhoo, I'm not a big speaker or reader. So I'll keep this simple. I have messages to everyone I care for in the seal under this message. They are to be delivered privately and the same for reading them. Now. I'm sure you people all want to know what I've left some of you. I can't promise wealth, women and wonderful alcohol. All I can promise is that I hope each gift means to you as much as it means to me._

_To Gamabunta, I leave my entire collection of fine sake. I hope you will accept them as an apology for that lousy bottle of cheap sake I bought to our first drink. _

_To Gamakichi, You're a fine soldier boy, I hope you protect Naruto as well as you have the rest of Mt Myoboku. I leave you with my Oni Headband. May it grant you luck in future battles as you become everything you want to be. _

_To Gamachuu, I leave an entire signed series of Icha Icha. Please do not read them near the waterfall _again_. _

_To Ma and Pops, I leave you with my apprentice Naruto. I hope you can train him to match my level of sheer awesomeness. _

_To Tsunade, my teammate, crush, occupier of my thoughts. I leave with enough cash to settle her debts finally with a hope she will remain a true Hokage. I would also like to leave a small message to you. Out of the many times I experienced the making of love, those 3 times I spent with you when you were sober were the best of my life._

This caused a small aww to come from the toad's gathered as Tsunade blushed beet red.

_I'd also like you to know that the other 4 times when you were drunk were pretty damn awesome too._

That was enough for Naruto, he'd been listening to this pervert's innuendo for the past 5 years but nothing made him chuckle quite like seeing Tsunade flustered.

"Stupid man, I was only pretending the first time." Said Tsunade, arms crossed under her rather generous chest with a blush still on her cheeks.

Her embarrassment wasn't quite over as the toad's had nowhere near the self control Naruto had and were openly guffawing all over the room.

It eventually took another 5 minutes just to calm the toads down by letting them laugh it out of their system.

Then the Oracle continued.

_To the entire Mt Myoboku, I will be there as your guardian. I will be in every toadstool, every mountain and every blade of grass, so care for each other and I will care for all of you in return._

_And finally, to my Apprentice Naruto, I leave this. A rubber ball. I'm sure you remember which one. I believe I caught it in my teeth one day while you learnt the Rasengan. Remember to take care of it and never to let it go._

_I will now leave you with a few more words of my choosing._

_WOOHOO! 100 POINTS!_

_This is Jiraiya. It's been great fun knowing you guys and even greater fun ogling Tsunade while she's not looking. See ya."_

After the toad population stopped the collective sniggering at the expense of Tsunade, Fukusaku saw fit to speak up.

"Thank you all for coming, but if you'll excuse us, we have some rather important business to take care of. If someone would be so kind as to take Tsunade back to the Leaf Village for me, I would most appreciate it"

Some cocky toad just had to say "What's that?"

The instant reply was "Training the idiot over here" said the small toad while pointing at Naruto. Naruto walked over intent on bopping the small frog over the head but instead got a scroll shoved into his hand and a reverse summon to Ma and Pa's private quarters at the top of the mountain.

*Bamf*

The disoriented teenager was spiral eyed for a few minutes after the summoning. A rather unfortunate side effect of summoning the rookie.

Fukusaku waited patiently as Naruto regained his bearings, looked at the scroll in his hands, looked at Fukusaku, and did the sequence again. Eventually, Fukusaku had had enough and bonked Naruto on the head with his cane.

"Get over yourself boy. Read the scroll already and let's get this started."

Naruto stared blankly at the scroll for a few seconds before seeing something that he had seen on some important documents during his travels. A blood seal. He did what he saw the Daimyo do when he opened it. He pricked his finger on a kunai and swept it over the seal. The seal started to unlock. Literally. The pieces of the seal moved out to become just a part of the scrolls design, leaving the scroll ready to open. Naruto opened up the scroll and looked inside.

'_Hey brat, sorry I couldn't give you more but it's all I could do to prepare you. There's only one person left in this world that can fight Akatsuki's Leader, You. I'm not sure of his abilities as I write this but I know he will be powerful. Remember, that ball is the key to greater things than you realize._

_This is my last message to you Naruto, I only hope I could have been a better godfather. Become strong, become Hokage, become a sage.'_

Fukusaku looked as Naruto's eyes started misting over. He saw the tears rolling and heard choking sobs. This carried on for several minutes until he managed to maintain some semblance of control over himself.

Naruto's wet eyes looked at the ball his true master had given him. It was nondescript. A simple looking baseball he used for Rasengan training.

'_A baseball? I was sure those balls I used were blank. This has… stitching.'_

Naruto cleared his tears quickly and swallowed the hiccups he had gained from looked closer and closer until he saw what no one would have ever noticed.

Seals.

But there was something pitiful about this situation. Naruto had no clue what this seal was. Jiraiya, while he taught him about seals, had not taught much on identification.

So Naruto did the one thing he always did in this situation. He tried what he did know until it worked.

He put his hand into his leg holster and drew out a kunai. He placed the kunai to his palm and forced it through, messily tearing into tendons and muscle, eliciting a hiss from him and a wince from Fukusaku.

"Boy, if you're trying to injure yourself enough you won't be able to fight, wait for the training. If you _don't_ get it right, I'll do the job for you."

'_Smartass frog…' _thought Naruto with a grimace on his face. He picked up the scroll and covered it in blood from his palm. This time, the blood did nothing except be absorbed into the paper.

"Damn it!" grumbled Naruto as he looked at the scroll some more. "Maybe I should give it to Gamahiro and Gamaken… I'm sure they would like a challenge."

"I was under the impression you still wanted to be able to use it afterwards. Either way, it's not like they can break it. Hell, I doubt even Rasengan could open the damn thing.

"That's actually not a bad idea Toad-man" said Naruto with a slim sparkle of hope in his eyes. "Shadow Clone Technique!"

A clone bamfed into existence while Naruto held the baseball in one hand. The clone did their standard Rasengan into his hand then left the existence plane as quickly as it arrived.

"RASENGAN!" called Naruto as he slammed the two together.

White.

That was all he could see for a few seconds after impact. Slowly he opened his eyes. The feeling of sudden blindness gone now but the loss of balance still hitting him like an oversized brick. And it was still there. One baseball, in one solid piece.

Naruto placed his head to the ground again before mumbling "Permission to say cock"

"Granted"

"Smartass" groaned Naruto as he sat himself up, stopping midway as red and blue dots jumped into his field of vision, kicking him behind the eyeballs and making his eyes water.

"Relax boy, the training can wait temporarily. Rest yourself and try to solve that thing in the village. Socialize for a bit perhaps, do you have a lady friend you have been neglecting recently?" questioned the old frog

Naruto pondered on this, he hadn't spent much time socializing since he got back from his journey.

'_The toad might be onto something. I've been pretty damn cold to my friends over the past week. I'm sure they'll forgive me but Lee will probably make me spar with him.'_

"Ok Pops, I'll go back to the Hidden Leaf Village!" exclaimed Naruto enthusiastically as he jumped up and walking away from Fukusaku.

'_3…2…1…'_

"Fukusaku…"

'_Bingo'_

"Which way is the Leaf Village?" asked a befuddled Naruto.

"Summon Gamakichi, he'll show you how to get there and back easily."

Naruto didn't reply, instead he formed the necessary hand seals to use the summoning technique. As Naruto slammed his hand to the ground, the usual runes didn't appear. Instead, he got slammed into the ground by a large mass of flesh on his back soon identified by the loud yell of "Whoever is under my ass, get out before I crap on you." as Gamakichi.

"My Apologies Kichi, I told the boy to summon you. He needs a ride back to Konohagakure." Said Fukusaku "And one more thing" this he muttered under his breath "Make it showy"

"Gotcha Boss, come on Naruto, get out from under there and I'll get you back." Said Gamakichi as he lifted himself to one side allowing Naruto to climb out. Naruto looked at both before yelling a loud "WHAT THE HELL!"

Fukusaku, for his part, looked completely innocent "Ah, it must have slipped my age-addled mind. Summoning in a summon realm is always a random experience. I still remember when Jiraiya tried to do it to Bunta, oh the laughs I had at that…" said the Toad Sentinel cackling mildly. "Now leave!" as he swiped his cane at the pair.

Gamakichi had enough sense to realize they'd both been done up like thanksgiving turkey, grabbed Naruto and stuck him on his back before he could attack the foot high toad.

"Ready buddy?" asked Gamakichi as he formed Toad Hand Seals "3..2..1… Bring Down The House Technique!"

And the two bamfed away.

Fukusaku just sat there thinking for a second.

'_When did Gamahiro teach him THAT move?'_

It was quiet in the Leaf Village. A sombre mood. One of the village's greatest ninja had perished at the hands of the enemy. But emotions should never get in the way of duty. That is what shinobi were meant to feel, but few managed to keep that. The largest concentration of non-mourners was in the Hyuuga clan.

They were following their normal schedule. Hinata and Hanabi of the Main Family were sparring against each other in the Peace Gardens. A small section of the Hyuuga compound that Hinata owned via a small loophole in Hyuuga law; that allowed the Heiress a section of the compound to do with as she wished to practice leadership skills.

Hinata did no such thing in it; she trained herself to be a benevolent person. The garden was her child. Lavender flowers everywhere, not her favorite flower but the smell was extremely calming. She had even had some of her friends redirect a water source underground to make a pond where water lilies could rest.

'_Maybe I should ask Father for some animals to add to the pond.'_ Thought Hinata as she dodged a strike to her sternum from Hanabi.

At this moment, her father, Hiashi, sneezed. This awakened him from the meditation he was experiencing with his nephew, Neji. The pair was seated cross legged in Hiashi's private dojo with their Byakugan active. This was a training exercise meant to increase distractions so meditation was more difficult

"Lord Hiashi, I believe that your interruption was most opportune. There is a large ball of chakra heading towards the manor."

Hiashi was aware of the ball of chakra for only a bit longer than Neji but had already thought over a plan in his head.

"Neji, inform guard squads 7 to 18 they are to assume defensive positions over the entire manor. I also want squads 1 and 2 to activate the Grand Kaiten Barrier."

The Grand Kaiten Barrier was the Hyuuga clan's greatest defense. A giant rotating sphere of chakra powered by several Branch families. This was held until they ran out of chakra and then others took their place while the first group regenerated chakra. This led to a strong barrier that could only be either broken by a demon or defeated by a siege.

"Lord Hiashi, the barrier would take too long to set up, this ball of chakra is approaching at speeds nearing afterimage velocity. May I suggest we wait for impact and contain the target?" asked the young Jounin.

"Very well, I wish to see who would be so bold as to attack the Hyuuga manor with only one unit." Confirmed Hiashi as he got up and Leaf Flickered to the estimated area of impact. Neji took this as his cue to leave as he ran to the guard's quarters to inform them of the decision.

Hinata had her sister floored. The younger Hyuuga had had her kneecap's Tenketsu sealed and was now sitting slumped on the floor.

"That's good Hanabi, you lasted 23 minutes that time. That's a half minute improvement on last time." Said Hinata while she checked her stopwatch. Her Byakugan still active as was her custom whenever she trained with Hanabi. Then she saw it. The same ball of chakra that Neji and Hiashi had seen just minutes ago. She could hear a small noise coming from the ball, almost like hearing an echo from one end of a tunnel.

But it was too late to do anything but watch now.

The ball was already level with the roof before Hanabi screamed.

*WOOOOMMMMM*

"BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE PEEPS!"

There was utter chaos in the Peace Gardens. Hinata had slid into her Gentle Fist stance once she heard the noise. This was soon changed when the tidal wave formerly known as the pond hit her and Hanabi. The two were both knocked off their feet and drenched from head to toe simultaneously.

Then they saw just _what_ had landed in their pond.

A giant toad, the size of a medium boulder, with a broadsword and a large headband sporting the kanji for oil had got itself stuck in the boggy mud where the pond's bottom would have been. And on top of this was the greatest surprise. Naruto Uzumaki in all his fine glory. He wore clothes befitting his position, he was Jiraiya's Heir and now he was the Toad Sage. He had kept his bright orange cargo pants while replacing his jacket with one that had more black on it. Over this slight change in clothing, he wore a cape like his father before him, in red with black flaming trim. On his back was his final item, the large Toad Contract, secured by a shoulder bound leather strap.

Standing atop his partner like nothing had even happened; he hopped down off the frog while completely blanking the duo of Hyuuga's. He turned on the frog and then proceeded to do what Naruto Uzumaki does brilliantly. He made himself heard loud and clear.

"WHAT THE HELL KICHI!" yelled the indignant blond. He couldn't resist the temptation any longer and just started wailing on the summon.

"I asked for a lift!" "Please Bro.. Fukusa…" "NO! SCREW HIM! You dropped me from a MILE UP into the CLAN estate!" "But Pa said to make it flashy!" "SO WHAT? If he told you to stick my HEAD IN THE FREAKING OVEN would you do it?" "No but.." "SEE! There! YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING HE SAYS!" "But Please Bro! He'd tell my pops!" "SO? You're a grown toad now! I thought you'd at least have a frigging BACKBONE! What are you? A Tadpole?"

Naruto continued his rant at the toad until an utterly confused Hinata made her presence known.

"Excuse me, Naruto. I'm not sure it is my place to question you but just _why_ did you see fit to completely _ruin_ my pond and _drown_ the majority of the plants in _my _corner of the Hyuuga estate" said the normally timid Hinata, covered in wet lavender petals and a water lily in her hair.

"I swear Kichi! If you so much as CONSIDER pulling this crap again, I'll rip your gizz…. Err… sorry Ma'am, oh wait" said Naruto peering at the sopping form of Hinata "Hinata… oh hey, how've you been?"

If Hinata could actually get mad, this would have been the perfect opportunity. Fortunately, the one person who could save his bacon arrived on just in time.

Hiashi Hyuuga opened the door to find a strange man talking casually with his heir and daughter with a battle toad trying to pull itself out of the remnants of a _very_ expensive pond and Hanabi sitting in a corner mumbling things like "Flying Toads" and "Lavender Tidal Wave". So he did the one thing all parents are trained to do somehow naturally.

He defended his daughter's honor.

Or at least he would have, had he not spotted a rather large amount of chakra compressed into a tiny space.

'_Chakra Bomb'_ was all Hiashi could think. That was before he assumed his Clan Head mood and made his stand.

"Naruto Uzumaki, I would normally tolerate this visit, but to come to my home bearing a weapon of mass destruction is _beyond _ethics"

Naruto on the other hand hadn't been paying attention to the door and was doing just what Jiraiya had sadly trained him to do. He was ogling. When his brain finally registered the threat level of his situation, he looked up at Hiashi, still half cross-eyed.

"Weapons of mass distraction?" questioned Naruto.

Hiashi was already really stressed, even after just meditating, which showed the sheer amount of annoyance the blond brought with him.

"I said, DROP THE WEAPON!" yelled the Hyuuga clan head "The one in your left pocket!"

Suddenly Naruto realized what he was talking about. He withdrew the baseball from his pocket.

"Oh, you mean this?" mumbled Naruto. Hinata and Hanabi just gawped as the moronic sage had the same annoyance factor as tying someone's shoelaces together then slapping them and hoping they chase you.

"YES!" yelled all three Hyuuga's. Hinata and Hanabi joining in, hoping the number of them would convince him to act seriously.

"But it's just Jiraiya's gift to me from his will! I doubt he would have made his only apprentice a suicide bomber for no reason! I was _actually_ coming to ask Hinata and Neji if they would help me with it while we hung out, but _noooooo_ Mr Grouchy Ass Hyuuga just _has _to be one massive spoilsport."

"But… that's a Shield Seal. Why would he put a _Shield Seal_ on a _baseball_. That's normally used for storing things with maximum security for long periods of time, making them only accesible to a single chakra signature. "

Naruto just stared at him… then stared a bit more… and then some more.

'_No… Freaking… Way' _"And you know how to unlock these seals?" asked Naruto hopefully. His annoyance level now on the same number as an angry mosquito but lowering slowly.

"I do, but even a non-Byakugan user should be able to tell that seal is immensely powerful. Look at its surface area, it's extremely large. Most Shield Seals are only about a 3 feet square at maximum, that one is about 30 feet square if my guess is any good." Said Hiashi in his trained arrogant voice.

"And again in words I understand?"

Hinata couldn't help but giggle at this.

"It means that the bigger the seal, the more chakra you need to pump into it to break it." Answered Hinata as she went into her bedroom. Presumably to change out of the wet clothes.

After hearing this, Naruto looked like he'd just been offered a night with any woman he wanted. Or better yet, any woman in a giant bowl of ramen.

"So I have to focus my chakra into the object and force it open, correct?" asked Naruto quickly

"I suppose"

"Stand back then Mr Hyuuga, or I might just blind you with pure awesomeness."

Hiashi stepped back, he knew never to try and interfere when Naruto Uzumaki started doing something.

Naruto's chakra bubbled to the surface as he did his most powerful chakra gathering exercise. He charged his charka onto a centre point in the middle of the sphere he was holding.

The chakra gathered and he felt something he hadn't felt in a long time. That powdery rubber stretching and squashing in his palm. This was exactly the same thing as what happened when he was learning stage two of the Rasengan.

He felt himself approach the bursting point as he felt the rubber start cracking underneath his fingers.

*FFFFHHHHWOOOOO*

All the air in the garden was sucked into the ball in Naruto's palm before suddenly repelling itself, causing a massive shockwave to blast in a true 360-degree circle.

Plaster cracked on all the walls, Hiashi quickly shut the door he had been standing near and left the room while Naruto was stuck in the eye of this storm. The plaster on the walls eventually started to give way.

His shock and awe only lasted so long, as finally, the power from the pseudo-Rasengan erupted as one final giant wave of backlash.

*PHMP*

The sheer magnitude of the chakra that had been released was too much for the newly inaugurated Toad Sage as he was launched backwards over 10 meters away. Unfortunately, this was 2 meters more than the distance between him and the wall.

The mass of a 5 foot 4 inch body proved to be too much for the plaster walls as the one he was launched into gave way easily. What surprised him was that he hit a second, fleshier, wall that collapsed under his weight. Then he saw the blue hair.

'_Awww Crap'_ thought Naruto as he saw a half-naked Hinata Hyuuga on top of him and unconscious.

He thought it was his lucky day when Hinata woke up and tried to assess her situation. But it seemed that old habits died hard. She took one look, screamed, and headbutted him senseless.

'_Déjà vu'_ thought Naruto before he completely blacked out, now laying back on the ground near where he started.

When Naruto next saw light, he was being licked by something. Namely, a tongue attached to a toad. And this toad connected to a very large scroll.

"Hi lil Naruto, I'm Key" said the toad now named Key.

Naruto looked at the toad. And smiled.

XxX

A/N: Here's the second chapter. Read and review as always. This was beta'd by Lucifer Allheart, the author of Naruto: Arashiodori, so make sure to check it out and review if you don't already read it.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

XxX

The sound of battle echoed around Konoha.

Pain, in more than one way, had entered the village. 6 men of various builds and ages had come to fight. The Six Paths Of Pain, holders of the Rinnegan.

Each of the realms had separated from the others, scouring the large village for one person. The one person who could concern Pain now.

Naruto Uzumaki.

Now they had found her, and the location had been taken from Shizune, leaving the young woman stone-still on the ground in the market district. Many others had given their all in defending the information, but it had proven fruitless. The names of the fallen sang on the edge of Tsunade's mind.

Tsunade sat across Deva Realm, satsuma hair and piercings highlighting his features. The large-chested Hokage was flanked by a team of ANBU Black Ops, her personal bodyguard. Around the quint, a seal was placed on the floor. Complex medical seals; normally reserved for specialist operating theatres, Tsunade herself seated in the middle of this array, becoming a catalyst for the seal to work through. Her ANBU bodyguards were there to stop her having to stand up.

At first glance, you may not have noticed, but looking closely you would see the small differences in Tsunade. The small purple jewel that adorned her forehead was gone, that reservoir of chakra run dry. Her markings that appeared as part of the Sozo Saisei were also gone. Tsunade was almost completely out of chakra.

"Tsunade... I know where the boy is," said Deva "there is no longer a reason for you to stay alive"

Tsunade stood up on shaky legs; she barely had the strength left to support her own weight now.

"Bite… Me… Pain…" puffed Tsunade "He'll be… your… end"

Deva's face hardened, already concerned over what power the Kyuubi boy had gained, this would be her last taunt.

"It's such a shame Tsunade… I'm sure you would have said the same about Master Jiraiya too, and look what happened to him" said Deva whimsically, a microscopic shrug of his shoulders followed.

"YOU…ASSHOLE!" yelled Tsunade, fighting against her lack of breath, choking on her own breath as she regained her breath "I…*cough* LOVED HIM *cough*cough*"

"Love? Love breeds sacrifice, sacrifice breeds death, death breeds pain. I will show you pain" said Deva, his tone mocking "I will kill this boy, I will gain the Kyuubi and the Elemental Nations _will _kneel before God. Behold my divine powers"

5 small poofs were heard, the rest of the realms of Pain had been summoned to Deva's side. Konan appeared soon after, legs gone in favour of paper wings.

"Konan, keep the bodies safe temporarily… I'm using _it_" instructed Deva, his eyes glancing at his angel.

"But… that attacks shortens your lifespan, Nagato" said Konan quietly. Deva replied in the same voice.

"There is no Nagato anymore Konan, only Pain"

Deva closed his eyes quickly and formed seals, leaving no room for interruptions. The five bodies surrounding him dropped to the floor suddenly, as if they were puppets whose strings were cut.

"No! Nagato!" said Konan, panic rising in her throat.

"Shinra Tensei!" yelled Deva, opening his eyes.

*FWOOOMMOOMMWOOO*

A large wave of gravitational energy was forced in a perfect ring from Deva's location after that obnoxious sound. To say it was powerful would have been a lie, this was apocalyptic. The floor started to move away from the centre, a single gigantic crater forming rapidly around the combatants. Buildings on the outside of the ring were ripped from their foundations like dandelions, falling to the ground unceremoniously.

Tsunade's guard had done the obvious thing, focussing chakra into their feet while grabbing hold of their drained leader lest she be blown away. They looked at the larger group in the centre of this mayhem.

Konan surrounded the 6 men, blades of paper as their barrier. Deva panting, shoulders twitching from exhaustion.

"Konan, I will not be able to move for a while. The other bodies will be active before this one, make sure they are not attacked until they are ready" whispered Deva, eyes meeting with Tsunade's "She is tired, but failing to prepare is preparing to fail"

Konan nodded, understanding her orders. To stand as God's holy warrior and fight in his name against the evils in the world. She raised her fists, ready to fight as and when.

Tsunade gawped in awe at the destruction around her; at least half of Konoha had to have been levelled by that one blast.

"KONOHA!" yelled Tsunade before descending into a coughing fit.

Her scream echoed high into the mountains around the village, reaching the ears of one frog sat on top of the Fourth Hokage's head. Shima had seen what had happened, her heart crushed by sadness, but she knew her limits. She was powerful, but not suited to battle in the same way as Gamabunta. Beside her sat Kosuke, her nephew and favoured messenger.

"Kosuke… send the word back to Mt Myoboku." Said Shima "The training is over, it's time for Naruto to return."

Kosuke nodded "Gotcha Auntie, I'll have the man himself back here quick-sharp!"

She looked below one last time, guessing the size of the crater. _'Yes… it should be big enough'_

"Hey 'Suke, one more thing." Added Shima "Have The Trinity come too"

Kosuke's eyes widened slightly,

"The Trinity? All three? These guys are that strong?"

Shima nodded before bopping him on the head to disturb his chakra frame, sending him back to Mt Myoboku the fastest way possible.

"Let's hope they get the message in time" said Shima to herself, going back to watching the events unfold below her.

Tsunade panted, letting her breath regenerate, as she watched the first 5 bodies to fall. Tears dropping from her eyes like shattered glass, each one emerging felt like a dagger in her heart.

"WHY? _Why do this Pain?_" yelled Tsunade from behind her tears, her ANBU guards readying themselves for an attack.

Deva looked across the pit of the crater at Tsunade, muscles tensing beneath his mantle as chakra started flowing again. He fell to his knees as his calves cramped, the lack of chakra after so long debilitating him temporarily.

"Because Konoha hid the Kyuubi, there is no reason for it to remain." Said Deva; still glaring at Tsunade. "I refuse… to be stopped… by such… pitiful beings"

"If we are so pitiful… _Why do you fear us?_" asked Tsunade, her tone cooling to an arctic whisper.

Deva considered the question as he drew several deep breaths. As he spoke, he levelled his voice out. He was almost back to fighting standard, about 65%.

"Even Gods die… they are not killed by a mortal's hands or means, but by their follower's belief. With the Tailed Beasts at my command, my followers will have complete faith in me, now and forever. Their devotion is just a toy, there to be played with at my whim. When I have the Kyuubi, I shall be omnipotent and my followers will truly believe. They will continue to believe, as will all their descendents. I will never die… _that_ is true immortality."

Tsunade stared at him, mouth agape.

"Immortality… All this… for immortality?" asked Tsunade, her eyes never leaving the man's. Deva stood as he listened, looking to the corner of his eyes briefly before looking back at Tsunade.

"But of course… I would accept no less, as a God. I am not a vengeful God though; I am a God of peace, choosing the option that will bring less violence and loss to the world."

Tsunade sat on her heels, looking at Pain with shocked eyes.

"You… YOU HYPOCRITE!" yelled Tsunade, forcing herself up. Her legs shaking but keeping her bipedal for the time being. Losing her balance temporarily, she started to fall forwards. Moving her leg underneath her, she managed to stay upright.

Using this system of falling and catching herself, she slowly started to move over to Pain. Her ANBU guard took this as a signal, taking into account their leader's intentions.

The four ANBU attacked in a diamond formation, running towards the now complete Konan and the almost recovered Deva. The 5 remaining bodies were slowly starting to move again, but stayed on the floor to recover faster.

The two flanking ANBU, one in a wolf mask and the other a stoat, sped forward with blades in a defensive stance. Wolf attacked from the left and stabbed into Konan's jugular whilst Stoat attacked her liver from below.

Konan turned her head downwards, looking at the wounds with interest. The ANBU also looked; despite their training, they still had an instinct to look where someone was looking. There was not a drop of blood from the wounds, no spray, no bile, nothing. It was as if she didn't have anything inside her at all.

"Get away from her!" yelled Tsunade breathily as she continued to head towards them, "She's not a normal opponent"

Stoat and Wolf had the same thought running through their heads.

'_We're no strangers to abnormal opponents. In fact, we're specialists'_

"Why… they used blades against me" said Konan, a condescending smile on her face. That smile widened even more as she formed silent half-ram seal.

As the pair jumped away, ready for their squad leader to jump in for her attack, they spotted a stream of white heading towards them. From their jump, they couldn't change their direction, being hit by the white as it made its way into them. The whiteness soon started hardening, stopping them moving slowly at first before setting into a solid bond.

Looking around themselves, they saw their captain and rear guard approaching Deva. Their captain, Rat, was using her specialist weapon. Wires. Throwing them attached to shuriken, they flew around Deva. Deva didn't move as she did so, instead allowing the rear guard, Bear, to jump behind him and catch the shuriken.

As he caught them, he threw them back to Rat, continuing in a circle. Deva stood with an amused look on his face as Rat caught them again. Pulling the wires taut, Rat expected Deva to be ripped to shreds. Instead, she saw him simply standing there with the wires wrapped around him.

'_Armor! But where?' _thought Rat quickly. _'The cape!_'. Forming seals, Rat charged her chakra into her fingertips.

"Volt Technique!" yelled Rat, electricity coursing into the wires and towards Deva; the electricity actually visible from the amount of power behind the technique.

'_Got him!' _thought Rat as the electricity was about to hit Deva. The electricity flowed into the wires surrounding Deva, filled to the brim but not delivering any charge to the man.

"Wha…" thought Rat out loud.

"Shinra… Tensei!" yelled Deva, the wires flying away from his body with extreme velocity. In the range of these wires, was the entire ANBU team. Rat and Bear, being close to the centre tried to flee. As they backed away, they felt something sharp enter their shins, then their thighs and groins, eventually working its way up their entire body. Rat let out a high pitched scream as she realised what had happened; Bear doing the same in a lower tone of voice.

Wolf and Stoat watched from within their cast cocoons as their captain and teammate were shredded by the explosion of tangled wire.

Konan looked at the trapped pair with a sad smile on her face, before saying a simple word.

"Slice"

Tsunade let out a howl of agony as she collapsed to the ground, watching the last of her subordinates perish at the hands of this pair. The remains of Stoat and Wolf fell to the ground, their throats slit by a single piece of paper.

"DOES THIS MAKE YOU HAPPY? ALL THIS BLOODSHED?" yelled Tsunade, tears rising back to her eyes "YOU KILLED EVERYONE FOR WHAT? A NINJA WHO ISN'T EVEN HERE"

She was sitting between her knees, ankles and behind on the floor with her head in her hands. 20 metres away was Konan, Deva, his bodies and the remains of her personal guard.

Deva glared at her, glancing sideways quickly to see the other 5 bodies slowly rising to their feet, all ready for battle again now.

"No Tsunade…" said Deva "I am not happy with this" said Preta. "I do not have the Kyuubi" continued Naraka, "This is unacceptable. You _will_ bring him here!"

Tsunade let out a choked laugh. "Or what? You'll destroy Konoha? Too late! I have NOTHING. You took my love! My home! And now you want my FAMILY? I'll DIE before I even HINT at how to find him!"

Deva levelled his glare before turning around and walking towards the lip of the crater.

"So be it… I, Naraka and Asura will search the village for any secret entrances. Preta, Human and Animal will head back to Ame. Konan… dispose of this woman"

The 6 bodies turned to walk away, soon to leave Konan and Tsunade alone in the middle of the crater that used to be Konoha.

"Nagato! Why must she die, surely she is broken. She may provide an information resource in the future." Called Konan

The 6 paths turned back towards the 2 women.

"She is already despondent; she will be of no use to anyone except for people of questionable sexual taste." Said Deva "Now; kill her. She _must _di-"

*BAAAMMBAMBAMMFBAMBAMMFBAMMMFF*

Loud explosions from nowhere occurred in the centre of the crater, causing Konan to leap out of the way and approach the 6 paths, taking up a place next to Deva. The gust of air produced an extremely pronounced cloud of dust, obscuring the vision of everyone present. Too sudden to dodge, all that was left to do was wait for it to settle before continuing.

In the dust, a large shadow could be seen. Bumpy and indefinable, it was a mass of _something_ that was taller than the crater was and almost a quarter as wide. It was organic if the movements were to be believed, but almost like there was more than one mind in a single body.

"*cough**cough* Lord… could you not have made the summoning to less dusty area?" came a deep voice.

"Don't blame me, Buntabrat *cough*, Ma said slap bang in the middle of Konoha. So that's where I aimed." Came an older voice, strong but calm.

"*cough* I have to *cough* agree Lord Fukusaku, this is rather *cough* dusty. This has to be all *cough* my fault. I should have landed *cough* more gently. Look, I even nearly trod on someone!" said a meeker voice.

"Hey! *cough**cough* No-one's blaming you Ken; It's not your fault where you're summoned. See, the dust is already going down" came a higher voice, adolescent but similar to the previous voices. The dust itself was getting less thick but still hard to see through.

"You got that right Kichi! *cough* You're great Ken!" commented an adult sounding voice, sturdy and energetic.

"Hey… Toad Sage, ready for your big intro?" asked the adolescent voice.

Deva and Konan looked equally confused at this statement.

"Be careful Konan… She is still alive, I can sense her chakra. And this… Intro… it may be a cause for concern" said Deva as the other paths readied themselves for battle.

A loud slap of rubber on flesh was heard.

"Got it, and GO!" said that same voice as a rhythmic patting sound started, like tapping but getting faster and faster. This continued until the tapping got so fast, all that was heard was a steady thrum. Until it stopped in an instant, all sound stopping after one big tap.

*SSSSHHHSSSSHHHHHHHSSSSHHHH*

The sound of wind separating filled the area as a red dot flew up into the sky. The very wind that had separated had to go somewhere. In this case, it went down.

All traces of the dust cloud were wiped away, clarifying everyone in the area's vision.

What they saw was one of the rarest sights in the Elemental Countries.

The Toad Trinity was here.

Three toads towering over everything. Each one had a different colour and weaponry unique to them.

One a light brown with red markings littering his wart covered body. An open blue kimono was his only clothing, apart from the bandages that were tied around his waist. These bandages were there for a reason, as everything about the toads is. They held his tanto sheath onto his right side.

Gamabunta, The Toad Boss.

The next was red and black in equal measure, standing like a fireman from the meiji era. A line of black made a semi-circle between his eyes and mouth. A two-pronged sasumata in his hand, spiked for good measure, and a large conical shield on his back. More adequately dressed, wearing a black jacket, tied with a relatively thin white fabric belt, and fishnet gauntlets.

Gamaken, The Toad Enforcer

The last was the color of seawater. A light aqua colour with his back darkened to a deeper shade. Aside from a solid metal belt, he didn't wear much else. His only other decoration was his weapon. Two large katana were held diagonally across his back in a cross shape.

Gamahiro, The Toad Juggernaut.

The Toad Trinity.

But they were not alone; on the head of Gamabunta was a much smaller toad. Dressed similarly to Gamabunta but colored brightly orange with blue markings. This was the son of the toad boss; Gamakichi, The Toad Oni. He donned the headband of Jiraiya, made into a bracelet for his arm. This just gave a name to his skill; he had been respected long before he received that gift.

Resting on Gamakichi's head was the final toad. Lord Fukusaku, affectionately known as Pa. One of the few beings capable of forming Sage Chakra and one of even fewer beings able to work with it. Controlling would be the wrong word to use; it implied you told it what to do. No-one controlled Sage Chakra.

Deva looked at the group, sizing them up carefully. As he was thinking, a slight whistling noise was heard.

"It seems reinforcements have arrived…" said Deva "So many toads… but no toad sa-"

Then realisation struck him.

"_**Hey… Toad Sage, ready for your big intro?"**_

_**The sound of wind separating filled the area as a red dot flew up into the sky.**_

"That dot!" exclaimed Deva as he looked up.

*SSSSHHHHSSSHHHSHHHHSSSSHHH*

The same hissing sound started as a large piece of red and orange was now definable. It was hurtling towards them

"Back," commanded Deva as he jumped back, the other paths acting almost synchronously with Konan reacting only slightly slower.

The toads and Tsunade looked up, Tsunade's view obscured slightly by the tall creatures surrounding her. _Protecting her_.

'_Oh god… He's back!' _thought Tsunade, a look of utter horror appearing on her tear-stained face _'He's really back! That idiot! There's no way he'll be able to do anything to this guy, he'll only be captured!'_

The red and orange dot was but a blur as it dropped, before a large cloud of dust erupted into the air around where it had hit the ground.

"Again with the dust?" questioned Deva "Surely that isn't the only trick you have is it? Naruto Uzumaki"

As the dust cleared, the figure could be seen clearly standing tall. A firm build and a large red overcoat with a black flame design along the bottom. A black jacket and pants underneath; highlighted with segments of orange. Spiky blonde hair atop his head, tied back firmly with a forehead protector emblazoned with the Konoha Leaf. Finally, on his back was a large scroll, bound with rope to his shoulders.

Tsunade looked at the figure, murmuring under her breath "Naruto… get out of here, run! You're no match for him. Even Jiraiya…"

"Relax now Tsunade… Go have a cup of tea or something. I'll deal with these guys." Said Naruto, keeping his back to the blonde Hokage "You seem tired, maybe you should take a nap too"

Tsunade protested even further, "Stop it Naruto! You're not invincible! Know when to give up!"

Naruto shook his head slowly, before turning his head to look at Tsunade. She gasped as she caught sight of him.

Bright yellow eyes with horizontally elongated pupils were looking back at her. Surrounded by orange tinting in the pit of his eye socket, these eyes were the only thing different with him.

'_Those eyes…'_ thought Tsunade.

"I know I'm not invincible Granny… but to give up now would go against my nindo. To never go back on my word. _That_ is my nindo, my ninja way. I swore to protect Konoha the moment I became a ninja; now, I have to do it."

"Naruto! PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!" yelled Tsunade as Naruto turned away to face the 6 paths of Pain.

Naruto promptly ignored her as he started walking towards the group of seven. Tsunade buried her head in her hands, unable to watch the one who looked so much like her brother - who she had come to love as if he were her own flesh-and-blood - die. A loud crash was heard as Gamakichi jumped from the top of Gamabunta, impacting with the floor roughly.

From the top of Gamakichi, Fukusaku leapt down a lot more softly than Gamakichi had. Landing next to Tsunade, he rested his hands on his cane before looking at the sobbing woman.

"He did it, Lady Tsunade. I didn't think he would but he did it" said Fukusaku delicately, trying to calm her as he watched Naruto approach the 6 paths of Pain.

Tsunade looked at the small toad confusedly, "He did what?"

"Mastered Sage Mode; those eyes are the only thing to have changed. Even Jiraiya couldn't do that. Just watch… we believe in him, you should too"

Tsunade couldn't look up at the battle. To see Naruto fight against the man who killed most of Konoha and then for him to lose would be too much for her to bear.

Naruto stood across from the group, his resolve strengthening with every breath he took. Seeing the melancholic look on their faces after all this bloodshed, it was rage inducing.

"You did this to Konoha!" yelled Naruto "And I can't forgive that Pain!"

Deva spoke in his usual tone of voice "Your forgiveness is not essential to my success. Surrender or I shall kill everyone who survived my initial attack."

Naruto's expression hardened, he had not been expecting this to be easy.

"I'll tell you one thing then… Pain. My training was possibly the most intense thing I have ever done, but it gave me a lot of time to think. The perverted sage gave his life to send us a message, and I think I've got it. _'There is no real one'_, that's all we were told. Shikamaru and the code-breakers tried to look too deeply into it. That was the genius of Jiraiya; he knew that they would do that, so he made the message for _me_." Said Naruto.

"I'll tell you this for free: I _can_ see the obvious. The message was him giving direct instructions on how to fight you. _Neither _of those bodies is your real body!"

'_The boy… is smarter than he looks.'_ Thought Deva _'But for Master Jiraiya to have sent the message to this boy exclusively… that's too bizarre for even him.'_

"Then it appears I have no need to hold back any longer…" said Deva "Konan… retreat back to Ame. The realms shall take care of this boy; then we shall have all 9 of the Tailed Beasts. Start the preparations for the Nine Consuming Dragons Seal."

Konan opened her mouth slightly, as if to protest, but thought better of it.

"Yes Leader," said Konan, turning around and running towards the lip of the crater and towards the west gate.

"And now, Naruto Uzumaki, you shall meet your end." Said Deva as he and the other realms got into a battle formation, a horizontal line facing Naruto.

"My thoughts exactly, you're going down!" yelled Naruto, charging at the group.

XxX

Hinata sat on the edge of the crater, a small boulder as her seat. She had injured her leg during the attack, her bone having emerged from the shin. Her eyes were misted over in pain as Ko tried his best to heal her with standard medical techniques.

"It's no good Lady Hinata, you need to be looked at by a medic." said Ko, giving up on the healing "If I continue further, I risk setting the bone incorrectly which would cause further problems in the future"

Hinata looked over at Ko, trying to identify his figure through her tears. "Thank you Ko, But I must watch this." Said Hinata.

Ko seemed outraged at the idea of leaving her here "But Lady Hinata, why? Surely you care enough about this to be healed?"

Hinata looked into the crater, seeing the large figures of the three toads.

"Because Naruto is fighting… If he can fight after everything that's happened, I must at least be able to watch him"

Ko sighed, he could not force his mistress to do anything, knowing his place as a branch house member.

Around the lip of the crater, slowly, the survivors of the attack had started to gather. Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi were all seated, tending to their own superficial injuries. Ebisu was nearby being treated for more serious flesh wounds and internal bleeding.

Izumo and Kotetsu had avoided most of the damage, being on gate duty at the time with Pain bypassing the gate and jumping straight into Konoha's centre. They had brought their refreshments of several gallons of water and several kilograms of Kendal Mint Cake, a snack with high energy content due to being approximately 95 percent sugar and 5 percent mint. Handing this out to the survivors, they did what they could for Konoha.

Several teams of jounin and chuunin had survived, each finding their own way to the crater from the yells and the noise of a crowd. This huge congregation had attracted the attention of the medical ninja who, using logic, figured that people would assume that there was safety in numbers.

As expected, they found that teams of ninja had brought their own injured to the group, some with broken bones, other's with superficial cuts and a sparse few who had been caught in an explosion, parts of their bodies suffering from first and second degree burns.

The ones who were capable of speech and were lucid were sat upright together, some were crying, remembering the ones they lost in the attack. Their howls echoed across the ruins of the city, making the soundtrack to the deep rhythm of rocks hitting earth. Able civilians, ninja, even pets were digging at the remains. Wherever a voice echoed in the chaos, people were crowding around to offer their assistance.

A young girl and her mother were trapped under the rubble; their voices carried to their rescuer's ears through the layers of rock and debris.

"Please… Mom… It hurts" "Don't give in sweetie… the strong ninjas will get you out of there" "Mom… *sniff* it really hurts, I can't *sniff* feel my legs" "Don't worry honey, you'll be ok" *CRASH* "AHHWOOH" "Honey! Honey, can you hear me? Honey? Honey… WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHH"

Some were safe in body but not in mind. The sudden shock of the attack was more than enough for some of Konoha's less mentally stable populace, their tethers had snapped and they were currently unsupervised.

"END OF DAYS! THE END IS NIGH PEOPLE! WE DON'T HAVE A PRAYER! OH GOD!" yelled one such person, running around the area with a vengeance. "WHY HAS GOD FORSAKEN ME! WHY HAS GOD FORSAKEN ME!"

"Who are those people? They just annihilated an ANBU squad in seconds!" said one male jounin, pointing towards Deva and Konan whilst holding his comrade who had one eye slashed through and a broken shoulder.

The injured ninja grasped at his damaged eye, fingers trying to scratch the skin around his eye away from his face, screaming all the while. The ninja asking the question lowered his hand to grasp his comrade's wrist and stopped him scratching himself. Several of his comrades murmured their agreement to his sentiments

"It doesn't matter who they are…" said a kunoichi with pair of bandaged legs, both brought up to her chest as she hugged her knees "They are going to kill us… _just like Lady Tsunade_" The kunoichi had had enough, she started to sob as she finished her sentence, the reality of the situation bringing itself to the forefront.

"KONOHA'S DOOMED!" yelled a small team of genin, barely older than twelve. The older ninja looked down; they knew something like this would have happened. It had happened before; ninja that were still children becoming catatonic on the battlefield from the events. Few still survived to this day, most had died on the battlefield from enemy ninja. The survivors all suffered from mental trauma from those events, _no exceptions_.

"Konoha may not be doomed children…" called the voice of one of the older chuunin. A woman in her early forties; still fit but beyond the average age of most ninja. Her hair matted with blood and a large gash down the side of her face. "But we are unlikely to live to see this night. Be prepared to die for Konoha, have no regrets on your deathbed."

The fog not helping their mood, but at least hiding the silent tears that some were now shedding.

"Hey, Kotetsu. Doesn't this fog seem a little… _dense_ to be around here now" said Izumo to his partner.

Kotetsu looked over at his comrade "I guess… I mean it's even over quickly. Some say that when large amounts of chakra are us- OH MY GOD" exclaimed the chuunin, pointing towards the crater.

It was then that everyone turned to the crater, seeing the behemoth figures of The Toad Trinity standing there, ready to do battle. Some of the younger females cowered slightly at the giant amphibians and even some of the younger boys did. The older ninja had seen or heard about the toads plenty of times before. In times of battle, it was known for Master Jiraiya or the Lord Hokage to summon them to aid the fight. The toads were powerful in their own right, known as one of the finest of the summons. Powerful, determined and capable of using ninjutsu. But now, only one summoner remained.

A few of the more experienced Jounin managed to pull their eyes from the scene, looking for anything else that may have arrived with them. Even from their position, where they could clearly oversee the entire field, they could barely glimpse an orange-red dot moving downwards towards the six fiends at neck breaking speeds

"Oh lord… _what_ is he *hack* doing here _now_? We fight to *cough* hide him and he turns up to _fight_? IDIOT!" Anko tried to yell, her left arm dislocated and a piece of wood driven into her right lung by Pain's Shinra Tensei; breaking the third and fourth ribs on the way in. After her attempted yell, a large glob of blood spilled down her front, a large tear shaped stain appearing on her fishnet. Sakura leant over her, removing the wood as quickly as she could with Anko yelling.

"Anko… He really is the biggest moron this side of Suna isn't he?" said Sakura blandly, her heart falling. _'Why did you come back Naruto? You should have stayed behind, you could have lived_'

"You fucking *cough* bet he is." Said Anko grumpily "If that guy doesn't kill him *cough*, I'm tempted to kick his ass myself"

Anko watched as the red dot impacted with the ground, the dust it kicked up was amazing for a mass so small. Seeing that blond moron emerge made Anko want to strangle him all the more. The rest of the crowd's attention was soon drawn to the dust and movement, the blonde's presence just being noticed for the first time.

"Why do you care about the little brat anyway Anko, it's not like he's going to make much difference against that guy" said Raido, staying calm as always, even in this apocalyptic situation.

"Hey! This is the kid that held off _Orochimaru_ *cough* long enough for me to get there at *hack* age _twelve_. He could start spouting champagne *cough* out of his navel and the bird of paradise *cough* could fly out of his nose; I still wouldn't be too *hack* surprised with him."

"So you believe in him?" asked Raido, surprised at Anko, she'd never shown faith like this in anyone before.

"No… I don't." said Anko "He's a wild *hack* card. There's a chance he could *hack**hack**cough* beat that guy. But there's a *cough* bigger chance he'll get his *cough* ass handed to him seven ways from Sunday. I just *hack**cough* like to believe he's the better option to *cough* believe in than giving up. Damn it Pinky, *cough* easy with the wood, *hack* I'm not a steak."

Sakura glared at Anko for a second before pulling her hand back quickly, dragging the wood out with some of Anko's flesh.

"Now I can get to work healing you properly. The removal of that wood as soon as possible was essential." Said Sakura; her tone even.

"Suuure it was *cough* Pinky"

"HEY! THAT BRAT'S CHARGING THE RED-HEADED BASTARDS!" yelled one of the less damaged ninja, with only cuts to non-vitals.

"Just shut up Anko, you're making it harder to heal you. These splinters are hard enough to find as it is" _'For the love of god Naruto… don't mess up.' _Thought Sakura; looking out as Naruto charged the six men.

XxX

Naruto charged the six, his mind working itself into a frenzy with panic. Despite his calmer exterior, he was honest to god nervous. As he spent more time in Konoha, he started to notice the damage. The wreckage of the city around him spoke, saying the prayers of the refugees.

'_Oh my god…this guy has done this much damage.' _Thought Naruto _'Can I even do this... if even the pervert couldn't beat him, can I?' _

As Naruto approached, the realms kept their stare focused on him. When Naruto got within 10 meters of the group, it all started.

To fight against God for the chance of prosperity.

A Rebellion of the Devil's Advocates.

Asura ran to meet the young toad sage, his figure looming over the more lithe form of Naruto.

"You're a big fella, aren't you?" said Naruto, forcing a smile, trying to ease his nervousness.

Asura didn't answer, instead throwing a swift left hook at the teenager. Ducking down to avoid the blow, Naruto felt a large surge of chakra brewing from behind the large man. As Naruto peeked through Asura's legs, he saw what was causing it.

Deva was forming seals on an order of magnitude faster than anything he had ever seen.

'_Damn it… he's forming seals faster than Kakashi.'_ Thought Naruto as Deva continued his seals.

Suddenly, almost as if by magic, a large ball of fire emerged from Deva's mouth. Naruto let out a surprised breath as he leapt sideways to avoid the blast. When it neared him, the blast expanded like an explosive.

Tsunade saw this; realized what it was because even she, with her perfect control could never quite get these techniques right.

"Time delayed techniques…" said Tsunade to Fukusaku "That's what all those seals were… he's set up delayed techniques. WATCH OUT NARUTO!"

"Give us more credit little Tsunade, it'll take more than that to break sage mode." Said Fukusaku shakily _'Naruto… We all believe in you. Don't let this guy have you think otherwise. You are a sage and a friend to all of us'_

Naruto let out an agonized yell as the blast encased him, screaming bloody murder.

"You Asshole! That freaking HURTS!" yelled the teenager as his fire-shrouded form approached Asura.

As he got closer, all the while yelling, Asura slowly reduced his stance.

"You are finished Kyuubi… I honestly expected more from the greatest of the tailed demons, but even the greatest strength is worthless in the hands of a child." Said Asura, watching as Naruto's shadow started to get lower.

"Who said you were wrong?" came a voice from the fire. As the voice said this, a foot emerged, followed by a leg at whip speeds. As the foot collided with Asura, the other realms saw what happened.

A completely unharmed Naruto Uzumaki emerged as the fire dissipated, leg still extended. Quick to follow up on his attack, he lowered his leg and used the momentum to swing his other leg around for a roundhouse kick.

"Iron Toad Skin" said Fukusaku, looking at Tsunade's expression "It was rather funny how he discovered how strong it actually is… He fell off one of the Hundred Needles and landed on his ass. Wasn't hurt in the slightest"

Deva let another elemental ball exit his mouth, this time a water element. It impacted with Naruto, who didn't flinch at all. Instead, Naruto carried on his assault of Asura, who was leaping back to join his comrades with Naruto in pursuit.

As Naruto leapt at Asura, ready to knock the realm into the Hokage Mountain; when he was intercepted by Human and Naraka.

Asura finished his approach and got behind Deva, who taking this as a signal murmured to himself "Elemental Salvo",

After saying this, he started to fire off an extremely rapid number of elemental techniques.

The bullets of chakra flew at Naruto, hitting his skin but not causing any damage.

'_What the hell is he doing? He just saw I couldn't be hurt by these things'_

In the haze of the mist and steam caused by the multiple elemental explosions, Naruto looked around. Not being able to see was certainly a disadvantage he could do without.

As Naruto was in the mixture of gases, his ninja instincts kicked in and he ran out of the smoky area. His arms extended, trying to find a waypoint of where he was. As he left, he ran straight ahead, into Human.

Human grabbed the running sage by his extended arm with one hand and under his arm with the other, and by rotating his whole body quickly, threw the teen over his shoulder.

"Holy shit!" yelled Naruto as he felt as if he was starting to fly. He heard several shouts, most likely from his supporters, as he was airborne. He hit the floor, feeling something different with the impact. He looked up into the sky, and saw the ground at the same time.

'_Ground? He didn't hit me hard enough to make an impact crater this deep. So… what is this.' _

Naraka signaled, and the opening closed on itself.

'_Oh hell no!' _thought Naruto as he looked around. There was nothing but sheer blackness as far as they eye could see; not that that was far anyway. He seemed to be floating, not quite standing, not quite flying but somewhere in between.

Continuing to look, Naruto felt a sharp tightness in his chest. He looked down to see nothing near him, even frisking himself to make sure, then it struck him.

'_I'm choking… there's no air in here' _

By swimming in the loosest sense of the word, Naruto managed to return to the apparent spot where he had fallen into this creature.

As he started to pound at the piece of flesh, he felt a sudden rush of air enter the space. This was soon followed by a sudden riptide heading outside again, dragging him outside again.

Naruto felt himself slammed into the floor rather harshly, not hurting but allowing him to regain some form of bearing. He looked up to see the ominous face of the King of Hell looming over him, it's visage grimacing in pain.

He looked around, seeing the reason for such pain. Gamakichi was stood over the being, it's neck being squashed by the muscular toad's arm, his other fist punching it repeatedly in what could only by assumed as the cheek.

"You took my bro! Give him back you monstrous son of a bitch!" yelled Gamakichi at the being. It's only reply was to give a strangled sound, akin to that of trying to speak while underwater.

Naruto was tempted to let Gamakichi continue to assault the strange thing, but decided against it.

'_Kichi will be of more use actually fighting, if he's stuck with this thing it'll be a waste. I can deal with it now' _

"Hey! Kichi! It spat me out!" said Naruto as he got up quickly, backing up slightly to give the toad space. "Get over here; we don't know how big this thing's swallowing limit is."

Gamakichi looked over at Naruto before giving the King of Hell one last solid punch and jumping back to be level with his summoner.

"Hey Kichi, why did you join the fight so early? Couldn't Hiro or Ken have gotten me out?" asked Naruto

"They couldn't see that thing, they were just muttering about you hiding underground."

"They couldn't see that giant freaking head?"

"Nope, I had to run all the way over here, but when I tried grabbing it, it started going ape-shit on me. Had to strangle the thing to get a grip on it."

"Really, what have you got that they don-" started Naruto, feeling a sudden pain in his lower back. Turning around briefly, he saw Asura, fist still placed in his back. _'His bracelet… it's Jiraiya's headband. Pa said that that thing didn't want to swallow Jiraiya… maybe it's allergic to the material?'_

"Fire" said the large realm, its voice as monotonous as the rest. A point several inches up his arm from his wrist started to ignite. A sudden bright flash of flame emerged almost instantly. The fist that was planted in Naruto's back still had him in shock; the force of that hit was enormous.

'_Damn… if I wasn't in sage mode, that would have paralysed me before I knew it' _thought Naruto as a wave of pain hit him.

*FWOOWOOOM*

The fist that was against Naruto's back was sent flying away from its arm, taking Naruto with it, straight into the base of the Hokage Monument.

"NARUTO!" screamed Tsunade, finally able to look up to see her unwanted savior be launched into a mountain.

Naruto looked behind himself again, seeing the fist still pushing him into the side of the mountain.

'_Come on… I can't overpower this thing; it's a damn fist with a train engine attached. What would that perv do?' _

Thinking back, he remembered something that Jiraiya had told him after another of his successful 'conquests'. How the old man got so many ladies would continue to elude Naruto.

"**Remember Naruto, women are beasts in the bedroom. When they want to keep you in one place, they **_**really**_** want you to move to somewhere different. But I tell you now; they are strong when they don't know what they're doing. You have to be move yourself; just spin out from wherever you are, you'll get out and the lady will gain a night her hips won't forget in a hurry"**

"Spin... SPIN!" said Naruto as he reaffirmed the idea in his head. Thrusting his left arm out, he started to push himself to the right, fighting against the fist. He felt himself start to move; then retracted his arm rapidly. The extra force, along with his right hand pushing against the wall was more than enough. Naruto span out slightly dizzy but no longer trapped.

He had no time to relax as he saw Animal running towards him, hands already holding a final seal.

As Animal noticed that Naruto had escaped, she decided to cut her losses. Taking her formed seal, she hit the ground with each hand in front of him, each spread away from the other. Turning around, she then hit the ground a third time, forming a triangle of summoning seals around her. White smoke emerged from the seals, making Animal and Naruto invisible to the crowd and even the other fighters.

All was quiet for a few moments until a momentous roar rocked the area, the crash of rubble in the distance and the howls that accompanied the passing of a life.

"HEY BUNTA! I NEED YOU AND THE BOYS HERE NOW!" came another loud noise, this one less dangerous and more annoying. "ATTACK INSIDE THE SMOKE! YOU CAN'T MISS THEM!"

Gamabunta looked to his comrades before nodding his understanding.

"GOTCHA BRAT!" yelled back the Toad Boss "Right Men, the attack pattern is Dragonfly, now BREAK!"

The Trinity started hopping the relatively short distance towards the smoke, each one drawing their weapon.

Just before the three engaged the smoke, they split. Gamabunta going to the left, Gamaken going to the right and Gamahiro jumping straight up into the air, blades pointed downwards as he started descending.

As their attacks reached the critical point of no return, they finally saw their opponents.

In front of Gamabunta was a large, brown bear. Horns sprouted from below its ears, each of them almost half as long as the body. Its mouth was frothing with the juice of insanity, eyes ablaze with a determination to kill. On its paws were claws that gleamed in the sunlight, almost so subtle they could separate the very dimensions themselves. As Gamabunta approached, its horns clashed with the tanto that the Toad Boss wielded.

"A bear with horns? What next, a tree with hands?" said Gamabunta with a hiss as he parried an attack from those paws.

With Gamaken, he stood before a large grey wolf. It had a haggard appearance; fur growing manically around it's body, almost hiding it's eyes, alive with feral rage. The wolf pounced at Gamaken as soon as it was aware of his presence. The self-depreciating toad blocked the lunge with his large shield, becoming aware of the single tooth that had managed to penetrate it. As he pushed the wolf back, he countered with a thrust of his sasumata. The two prongs fitted just too tightly on the wolf's neck, ripping its flesh with the spikes that came with the weapon.

"Where's Naruto? I don't know… did I squash him? I'm really useless"

"NO YOU AREN'T KEN! I'M RIGHT HERE!" yelled a voice from behind Gamaken. The large toad turned his head briefly and saw that Naruto was behind Gamakichi who was now fighting with Asura.

"This is no time for pleasantries brat! Take care of those guys, and try not to get the survivors involved. Do you think any of _them_ can stop this level of ninjutsu" interrupted Gamabunta, his tanto making extremely rapid slashes at the bear, forcing it back despite it's range advantage.

'_He's right, but where can I fight without causing too much collateral damage?' _thought Naruto to himself, dodging to the side as Asura pushed Gamakichi back a few metres. With a textbook sumo technique, Gamakichi used a two arm push to Asura's chest, throwing the realm back towards the other realms.

Naruto looked around for a spot; but the crater was completely occupied by fights. Bunta and Ken were fighting their own opponents, and a loud crash followed by a huge cloud of dust showed that Hiro had his own fight under control. Gamahiro was fighting against a warthog of beyond monstrous proportions, nothing extraordinary but amplifying every part of the warthog's appearance several times over. It's tusks, it's intimidation factor, it's strength, everything.

Naruto looked up to try and see if there were any good vantage spots around the village, any high ground would be a good place at the moment.

'_Any high ground… or any high place…bingo'_ thought Naruto as he looked up, "Hey… Kichi; how's your throwing arm feeling?"

The 6 realms of Pain had reassembled and were ready to start another assault.

"The initial plan has failed, we did not account of the arrival of the Toad Trinity for reinforcements. Moving to the secondary plan." Said the 6 realms simultaneously, less talking and more repeating orders. The group started to advance on the young sage, their synchronized movements unnerving to all that witnessed it.

They watched as Gamakichi grabbed Naruto and let him rest in the toad's palm while still standing. The toad pulled back his arm and looked at the group coming for him. He gave the closest thing he could to grin, and started to release the stored energy in his arm.

Naruto looked at the group getting closer.

'_They'd better take this bait'_

"See ya later, mi amigos!" yelled Naruto as Gamakichi threw him up into the air, added to the already stupendous power of a sage mode jump.

Tsunade just gawked at this display, trying to run through what she had just seen in her head.

'_He…He's crazy… he's going airborne? He can't even steer up there, let alone propel himself'_

The realms didn't even bother to look up; they knew from the amount of chakra that he wouldn't be coming down anytime soon. Gamakichi pulled out his broadsword as he registered the realms as staring at him.

"The toad is insignificant, focus on the Kyuubi. I will give us means to fight him" said Deva to the other realms, their movements now slightly more individual. Deva looked around, then to his feet and then finally started to form seals. He made a large sequence of seals with enough chakra put into them to make several thousand shadow clones.

"Ring of Fire Technique" called Deva, his chakra being expelled from his heat directly into the earth. The ground in a twenty metre radius around him received a dose of this chakra, so much so that the ground's molecules began to vibrate extremely fast, thus heating the ground to lava-like temperatures. In fact, the floor did become lava.

A forty meter ring of lava was all that was underneath the realms now, steam spewing upwards in a steady stream, like a vertical tide. They rested upon this lava like they would water, easily, almost lazily.

"This village has a very damp under-soil and top-soil, along with several springs close to the surface. There should be enough water in this area for this steam to last for long enough. Naraka, stay down here and prepare for evacuation" said Deva "Now, let us approach."

Deva raised one foot in the air, let it rest at a point, and then put his weight on it. It stayed in mid air. He continued to do this, almost as if he was climbing an invisible staircase. The other realms, except Naraka, followed suit. Soon they were approaching Naruto at normal ninja speed, jumping from one 'platform' to the next.

Tsunade and Fukusaku had started to make their way over to the rest of the survivors. Fukusaku did most admirably as a walking assistant; he was strong but didn't appear to be. Perfect for being a ninja's partner. Fukusaku looked back to check on the fight and had to do a double take to make sure he wasn't seeing things in his old age.

"Tsunade… look at Pain… how can he be doing that?"

Tsunade looked back, holding back a gasped choke of surprise.

"The water… Konoha is built on the biggest inland water supply in the Elemental Countries. He's superheated some it and is using the steam to walk into the sky." Said Tsunade; holding back her tears and starting to compose herself. She was the Hokage and had to be a pillar of strength for her people.

"It's an insane idea, but technically possible. The steam is essentially just another form of water, the same principles should apply but with a higher difficulty. It must require so much chakra to bring enough gas together into a form that can be stood on, it's… incredible how much that man has used today" Tsunade finished, letting her face drop to be surrounded by her bangs.

"Don't do that Tsunade, you forget who Pain is fighting against" reminded Fukusaku "This is _Naruto_, the same kid who learned the _Rasengan_ simply because you made a bet against him. You challenged him to that. Now Pain is challenging him. Naruto _will_ pull through, that's how he does things"

"…I understand…" replied Tsunade solemnly.

Naruto looked down and saw 5 realms coming straight for him; now that he started to descend, there was not much he could do to avoid them.

'_Excellent… they came up here'_

Naruto looked at the group, he saw that Deva had slipped back to be the second highest. The new highest was Preta, the large man that had remained fairly anonymous till now.

'_You're first!'_

"Shadow Clone Technique!" called Naruto, forming his familiar cross hand seal.

A single shadow clone emerged from a poof of smoke next to him, so he leant in close to the clone and whispered "Aim for the big guy near the top, the one with a metal lip"

The clone nodded before grabbing a hold of Naruto's arm and throwing him at Preta, before promptly disappearing into another poof of smoke.

Naruto let himself streamline his body, his arms ahead of him and his legs together. At the head of this human missile, he started to spin chakra in his palm. Naruto looked down and saw he was approaching Preta a little quicker than he had anticipated.

A split second passed.

"SAGE RASENGAN!"

The Rasengan was still a newborn as it struck Preta, the large man not even having a chance to open his mouth before the deadly attack collided with his body.

The force exerted on him by the attack and the collision was more than enough to send him plummeting down. Naruto looked as the realm hit the floor, only to see it swallowed by the King of Hell.

'_Shit… I didn't notice that one was missing'_ said Naruto as he saw Naraka looking back up at him through the steam. His thoughts were cut short as he felt a blow to his leg and arm. Shocked, Naruto almost let himself fall past his attackers. He grabbed onto one of their ankles, pulling down the realm he grabbed a couple of meters before they attained some form of control again.

He looked at the realm and found it to be the long haired Human realm. Human shook his foot, trying to dislodge the teen.

Naruto saw Asura approach, walking quickly towards him. Asura reached him before he could reposition himself, letting the large man grab Naruto's wrists, and then holding the teen up by them.

Human composed himself before turning his attention to Naruto. He got into a tight stance, body side on, feet in standard footing of leading foot forward and rear foot sideways and arm extended. Clenching his fist, Human lunged forward and caught the trapped sage in the back. The pain in his stomach area caused Naruto to start to bring up what he had been eating before he left. Several types of mushroom and herbs were soon smeared in an acidic mess of vomit down Asura's front.

Asura simply acknowledged the fact that he was now covered in what could possibly be considered disgusting, but it wouldn't affect his combat ability. Then he saw Naruto staring at him.

"Hey big guy" said Naruto with a deep grin and eyes overshadowed by bangs, grabbing Asura's attention. As soon as the bulky adult turned his eyes to Naruto, they were filled with a vision of black and silver.

Naruto felt the harsh contact between their two heads, the impact making bells ring in his ears. He looked up and saw Asura, forehead dented and bleeding, but still gripping Naruto's arms tightly. Behind Naruto, he saw Animal forming yet more seals and placing her hand to what should have been thin air. Now it was more like thick air.

"Let go you BASTARD!" yelled Naruto.

Asura surprisingly complied with the request-cum-order. He dropped Naruto, along with kicking out at the same time, hitting Naruto directly in the face. Naruto let out a cry of pain as he felt his cheekbone fracture slightly.

As Naruto flew backwards in the air, he could feel the sage chakra already healing the fracture, but that didn't stop it hurting like a bitch. Just as the fracture finished healing, he felt himself impact with something soft. Using his hands, he felt the surface. Feathery and smooth, very warm to the touch, it even smelt like twigs and straw.

*CAAAACCAAAWWW*

And it was cawing.

Naruto opened his eyes and looked on this thing for the first time. A bald head, with black and white feathers intermixed together like ebony and ivory. Wings flapping with a thirty metre wingspan and a twenty metre body length. Naruto stood up on unsteady feet, walking down to the base of the bird's neck.

'_No way… is this a vulture?'_ thought Naruto. He looked down from his position, being sure to attach himself with chakra. He could see all of Konoha from here, the toads at such a distance that he could see all three of them without turning his head.

'_This is insane… I've never had a fight like this…'_

*CAAAAWWWW**HIIIIIIIIIII*

The bird let out another caw, followed by a loud whistling shriek.

A few seconds after the shriek, Naruto felt the balance of the bird unsteady slightly. He turned around and saw roughly what he had expected.

Animal, Deva, Human and Asura.

"And the old perv took on all six of you at the same time?" said Naruto, shaking his head slightly "He was holding back! I _told_ him not to hold back in our spars, but _noooo_ he _has_ to be noble and take it easy on me"

The realms ignored his rant, instead getting into offensive taijutsu stances.

"Attack him" said Deva.

The quad charged, each of them in a different direction. Deva jumped into the air, Asura took the centre, Animal on the left and Human on the right.

'_Wait… when did they get so close?'_ thought Naruto before realization struck. They were attacking.

Crossing his arms, he blocked the punches that were coming from each side to his head by grabbing their wrists. As he gripped onto their arms, their resistance pulled him down but instead of fighting it, he let himself move with it. As he went down with the weight, his headband met with Asura's skull again for the second time. Along with causing Asura pain, the two realms whose hands were still gripped had been flipped over. They were now laid in a mess either side of Naruto.

"KKYYYYAAAAAAA" yelled Naruto as he forced himself forward even more, tumbling himself over. As he rolled over, he forced his foot over his head at even greater speed. He felt a large thud, looking upwards from his position to see Deva still airborne after being hit with a kick that should shatter bones.

Naruto spun around quickly on the floor, his leg extended in a sweeping motion. It was obvious to see, but sometimes the best thing to do is the obvious one. Animal, having been the most effected by being thrown, was still staggering on her feet. Being hit by the leg sweep had pushed her even further off balance.

Naruto completed his single spin and saw Animal in a state of flux; he took advantage of this, just how his master had trained him to.

"HUUN!" let out Naruto as a battle shout, his fist colliding with Animal's solar plexus in a solid hit. Animal's eyes rolled into the back of her head from the insane feeling in her gut, never having experienced a pain such as this. Her body was thrown by the immense force clear from the vulture, sending her down towards the ground at high velocity.

Asura lunged forward at the same time as Human at Naruto, each of them aiming to grab him. Ducking down, Naruto leapt forward at low height through the biggest gap available, straight between Asura's legs.

Asura saw this and clamped his legs together as quickly as possible. This didn't stop the young shinobi, who still managed to get through. Rolling forward and then springing to his feet, Naruto leapt back at the pair at a great height. Nearly tripping as he took off, Naruto's legs separated in the air, both outstretched in front of him but spread apart in a wide angle.

Human took this opportunity and punched towards the opening, not flinching in the face of an attacker. Asura soon followed and got ready to grab one of the outstretched legs. Naruto expected the punch, having heard from Fukusaku about Pain's melancholy about low blows. As he got into range, Naruto did two things at once. Firstly, punching the forearm that controlled the incoming punch downwards so it would miss him completely. And secondly, bringing his two legs together like a vice.

The consequence of the second point was shown instantly. Asura and Human came into contact immediately, their heads colliding like two wrecking balls. The injuries to Asura's head had reached critical levels; and passed that level on impact. His head had collapsed in on itself, triggering the large amount of explosives that were stockpiled there.

*FWOOOOOOOOO*

A single explosion echoed across the entire battlefield; all coming from Asura's head. The mess that was left of it was almost enough to make Naruto retch; a single line of teeth on the bottom jaw, some cartilage that connected the head to the neck and a stump that lead to the spinal cord.

Human was not much better off. He still had his skeleton, but it now looked like it had been immolated. Charred black, more similar to coal than calcium.

Naruto had jumped away as soon as his kick had landed, expecting to avoid the blood splatter if possible. This act of vanity saved his life, taking him outside of the explosive range.

The two bodies staggered wildly in opposite directions, each one toppling towards the edge. The curve of the vultures back was enough to set them on a path towards the ground, already dead but heading towards destruction.

"Fire Dragon Technique!" called Deva from behind Naruto.

The large wave of heat that could only accompany a fire technique of that magnitude set to singe the hairs from Naruto's back. Naruto instinctively did the first thing he could think of to escape the flames behind him.

Go forwards.

Jumping forwards, Naruto realized his mistake too late.

There was no surface in front of him.

Naruto started to enter freefall as he looked back up and saw Deva standing on the vulture, the light of the sun blocking all detail except for a vaguely human shape. The air started to whip at his face violently, the sound deafening as the roar of the silent wind surrounded him.

Deva watched this from above amusedly, it wasn't often you saw a teenager throw himself off of a giant vulture.

"Land, we shall proceed to Ame on foot. Naraka will already have finished healing Human and Asura." Said Deva to the vulture.

*CAAAAW*

A caw of understanding was received as the vulture started to fly downwards, near to the western gate. The realms of pain were waiting for him, each of them ready and fully capable for battle.

The vulture landed quickly, having perfect control over its own movements, an experienced flyer. It's skill was the reason this vulture was one of Animal's summons despite its lack of insanity or bloodlust.

Deva jumped off to join his partners. Animal walked up to the vulture and placed a hand on its side before muttering "Dispel". The vulture disappeared into smoke, hanging around the air like tobacco in a smoking room.

"To Ame, we are not yet ready for battle and the Kyuubi will pursue us. We will need time before we engage him in combat again. To gain a lead at first will be advantageous for our recovery and to allow for a new battle plan" said Deva to the others who nodded their agreement.

XxX

Naruto continued to drop through the air, unable to halt or slow his speed. Looking down at the situation was all he could do for the moment. Gamabunta had cut through the bear's horns, leaving them stuck into the ground like mentally-challenged stalagmites. He was now fighting against the desperate animal itself, obviously in pain but soon to be at peace.

Gamahiro had pinned the warthog with his swords, one through a shoulder blade and the other through both thighs. The aqua colored toad sat back, enjoying his victory for the moment while he tended to the wounds he had received. Several lacerations decorated his stomach, soon to be scars, as well as heavy bruising around his midsection. Having taken his belt off, he had a large container of coagulant paste as a belt buckle. This is what he was applying to the wounds as he regained his strength.

Gamaken on the other hand was not going well. The wolf had torn down the toad's shield, leaving him with only his defensive maneuvers to use. Gamaken looked exhausted; slime was coating his body in an effort to cool him down after so much work.

'_I can't leave Ken like this…Hold on Gamaken, I'm coming.'_

Naruto opened his black and red coat, letting it swirl around him, before grabbing the edges and pulling them taut. By lifting the left hand side, he banked to the right and vice-versa.

'_THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME' _thought Naruto excitably in his head as he started to let out his ecstatic personality verbally.

"WHOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

The teen banked from left to right as he descended, lining himself up for this. One shot was all he had. He pushed himself into a position of unity with his target.

The teen sage finally reached his point of action, about a hundred metres from the ground. Tucking his arms into his body, he let his coat flail around aimlessly. He brought his legs up so that his knees touched his chin, wrapping his arms around them. Now if anyone looked up they would see a spinning ball of red and black hurtling towards the ground at a great speed.

Gamahiro was the first to notice the ball, now even more clearly visible but moving too quickly for most eyes. Gamahiro was used to those speeds because it was normally _him_ that fell at them.

"Hey… Boss… What would a massive ball bearing dropped from high up do to a large squishy object?" asked the toad, eyeing his prey carefully.

Gamabunta stabbed his blade into the bear's arm as he answered, almost letting its roar of pain drown out his words.

"It would make a hole bigger than the mouth on a Yamanaka" replied the boss curtly "Why?"

"Just asking" said Gamahiro as innocently as a wildly grinning ten-storey toad could be.

Gamahiro _wasn't_ the first to hear him though. That pleasure belonged to Gamaken himself.

Gamaken just blocked another lunge, using his sasumata as a makeshift bit to gag the wolf. The force of the wolf had pushed him onto his back and the wolf had rolled to the side to escape the gag. The battle toad leapt up to the opposite side to that of the wolf and stared at it for a second.

The wolf's eyes focused, it was ready to pounce.

"M-m-make my d-day pun-k-k" stuttered Gamaken, trying to overcome his nervousness

"UZUMAKI METEOOOOOOOOOORR!" came a loud yell from above, increasing in loudness thanks to Doppler shift. In other words, it was getting closer. And _fast_.

Gamaken looked up and almost missed it. A black and red ball flew into his field of vision and then almost immediately leaving it again. The ball landed directly on the wolf, causing the wild canine to let out a bestial howl. As Gamaken looked closer, he saw a relatively small object _underneath_ the wolf.

Naruto got up to his feet unsteadily and tried to regain his balance.

"I feel… sick…" was all Naruto could mumble before falling to his knees and letting his stomach eject it's contents onto the ground.

*BRURURUFUFUFU*

After Naruto had successfully chucked his chips, he got up again. Only to feel something wet drop onto his cheek. He looked up, and instantly dropped down to his knees again, heaving what little was left in his stomach onto the floor.

A hole of about one meter diameter was missing from the wolf. It was as is a cookie cutter had been pressed into the animal and retracted quicker than the eye could see. The internal organs were still in perfect order, beyond the fact that some parts such as the liver were _missing_.

Naruto got back to his feet and got out from under the unsteady wolf.

*GGGAAAAUUUUUUU*

The wolf let out a pitiful moan as it slumped over sideways, crashing to the floor before becoming a poof of smoke, dispelling back into the summoning matrix.

Naruto ran over to Gamaken, now sat on his rump and panting heavily.

"Hey Ken, you ok?" called the sage

The toad nodded briefly through his gasps for breath.

"Thanks *UURF* to you *PUUU* I am *UURF*"

"Good, now to take care of those other two."

Naruto formed his old favourite hand seal, a single cross formed by his index and middle fingers on both hands.

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

Two clones popped into existence, their familiar presence a comfort to Naruto.

"Attack the two summons, use _it_"

The two clones nodded before running to the first summon; the bear. The original Naruto ran over to where Tsunade was sitting with Fukusaku. They were looking at him, covered in specks of vomit, blood and sweat, eyes still yellow and pupils horizontal. And they didn't look like they could be prouder.

"Naruto… you're alive…" muttered Tsunade, not believing her own eyes.

"Don't count on it just yet Granny… he's not dead yet." Said Naruto his eyes looking past her; "I have to go after him. For Konoha."

Fukusaku gave him a hard glare.

"Don't you give me that load of fish eggs, Jiraiya said that and look what happened to him" ordered the small toad

Naruto looked down, remembering that Fukusaku had been there until Jiraiya had died.

"I can't… I can't say anything else… because I don't know. I don't know how I'm to do this… I don't even know if I'll… survive. All I know is… I have a chance. Pain is being pushed back... and I have to go"

"You'll be killed!" exclaimed Tsunade

"It's always a possibility... honestly… I'm scared Granny…" said Naruto, his shoulders shaking. "I'm so scared…"

Fukusaku sucked his lips in and closed his eyes briefly, a sad smile across his face.

"Never lose that fear boy… it is your fear that keeps you alive. To be fearless is to live without your fear, to be brave is to accept your fear and overcome it. For you, to be a sage is to fear everything, but to never be so scared you stop"

Naruto nodded at the elder toad's words, he was a sage now, and he had a responsibility.

"GREAT BALL SAGE RASENGAN!"

A loud duo yell echoed across the crater to the small group's ears, as well as two large explosions of smoke behind them. Looking at the ground near the explosions, he saw his two clones giving him a thumb up each. They had used their attack against the two remaining summons, each one being dispelled as soon as the attack hit. The attack they had been hit by was both expected and slower than the one that killed the wolf, the reason why the wolf died.

Raising his hand to them, he dispelled their structure.

"It's time Granny… if I don't get him now then there won't be another chance." Said Naruto "Get your chisel out Tsunade, if anything happens then you have to be the one to do it"

Naruto then turned on his heel and ran towards the east gate, coat trailing behind him. The imagery on the coat gave the impression that he was running with a trail of red and black flame following him.

Tsunade had tried to keep herself steady, talking as little as possible, but that last sentence had really hit home. She lowered her head and fell to her knees; not crying, there were no tears left to cry out.

Fukusaku looked at the quickly retreating figure of Naruto running towards the gate. Filling his lungs up with breath, he yelled as loud as he could,

"LONG LIVE THE LEAF!"

Naruto flinched as he heard this yell, his face scrunching together. Not having to worry about people in the street, everyone either by the crater or on the side of the road; he closed his eyes as he ran, not able to bear the sight of Konoha.

"Home of the fire" said Naruto quietly, finishing his and Jiraiya's personal battle cry.

The wind blew from behind him as he left Konoha's gates, pushing him forward to fight. Even nature itself was on his side here.

XxX

A/N: And there it is, the first part of Naruto going to avenge his sensei. I should remind you guys that this is a reimagining of the scene, not a novelisation of the canon one. As usual, review if you could. A few comments are greatly appreciated.

This chapter was beta'd by Lucifer Allheart.


	4. Chapter 4

XxX

The 6 realms of Pain had hurried in their retreat, already hopping along tree branches in the forest surrounding Konoha. The dew had long been burnt off the leaves, leaving a fresh smell in the air. This far away from Konoha, the bloodshed was nigh detectable, but the silence of the forest wasn't broken by anything; the realms travelling in silence but swiftly. Nothing natural could be heard, like a funeral; the forest was mourning for the lost.

The realms were now organized, making themselves into a retreat formation designed to guarantee the survival of the maximum possible amount of shinobi. Asura, Deva and Human were in the front row, Animal and Preta in the second and Naraka at the back. Naraka opened his eyes even wider briefly before making an announcement to the rest of the realms.

"The Kyuubi is coming… he is fast, actions must be taken as soon as possible"

The other realms nodded, feeling the gradual increase in chakra head towards them. It was still sage chakra, but different slightly. It was concentrated, more purified than before. Where he was getting used to battle with natural chakra previously, he was now acclimatized. This fight would be even harder than the one before.

Naruto saw the realms in front of him and hastened his pace.

'_So close, I can't stop now'_

"Shadow Clone Technique!" echoed throughout the forest, disturbing the birds and causing many other creatures to scurry away.

Naruto looked ahead and saw more copies of each realm than he cared to count.

'_Crap… which ones were him?'_

Each group of realms interweaved their path with another group's, some members switching between them faster than a conman's trick. Naruto's eyes flickered back and forth like a hummingbird's wings.

All the meditation he had done in Mt Myoboku was paying off in spades now, his concentration having been heightened considerably. His eyes were following the same group that had made the shadow clones perfectly.

'_I see you, Pain. Now to get rid of your damn clones'_

The clones seemed to be trying to more annoy Naruto than anything else. They ganged up into larger groups than made sense and bum-rushed him at times, or at others aimed for sneak attacks to sensitive areas.

'_They're trying to break my concentration… but there's so damn many of them. Targeting them individually will be pointless; this needs a something with a little more 'oomph' in it. There's nothing man-made around here… perfect. This worked against Haku, should work here.' _

Naruto let his sage chakra flow to every tenketsu on his body, making sure it wasn't released yet, and keeping his upper-level concentration squarely on Pain's real bodies. His eyes started to squint in effort at keeping the chakra at his tenketsu for so much longer than normal.

'_Dammit! Don't blink! If I lose sight then I won't find them again'_

Just then, a small twinge refreshed Naruto's mind. His technique was ready. It was an unnamed technique, unusable to anyone who only possessed human chakra. By compressing large amounts of chakra and releasing at from all the tenketsu all at once, it created an effect not unlike the Hyuuga Kaiten, but with vastly different effects; Human chakra quickly lost it's power and density outside of the body, while Nature or Demon chakra didn't suffer those faults. With the Nature Chakra being essentially a part of nature itself, the natural inhabitants of the area were unaffected.

Neither trees, nor leaves nor wildlife so much as felt a thing as Naruto released his technique. The Pain clones, on the other hand, poofed out of existence, unable to survive the purge of Nature Chakra. Had Naruto used the Kyuubi's chakra, like he had against Haku so long ago, the effect would have been the opposite. With the Demon Chakra's destructive nature, the entire area would have no doubt been ripped to shreds.

No words were needed to use the technique, all that was needed was to let go.

And Naruto did.

The effect was profound. Not a single leaf or branch was disturbed, but every shadow clone looked like they'd been kicked in the gut. Repeatedly. The poofs of smoke that filled the area soon alerted the real realms as to what was happening.

Deva looked over his shoulder and alerted the rest of the realms.

A nod of acknowledgement was all he got as they started to follow his directions.

Naruto looked at the realms as they turned right sharply. He acted quickly, jumping at a tree, bouncing off the trunk onto another tree's trunk then back onto a branch in the right direction.

'_Haven't I been here before?' _thought Naruto absently, as he let his mind start thinking of more than one thing.

Naruto continued to pursue them, his mind soon fully restored to functionality from the chase. As he started to grow weary of the same environment, he was suddenly blinded by a bright light.

The trees had disappeared from his peripheral vision, so the shade that they created had gone too. He blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the sunlight.

He looked around him as the burning inferno turned into a moderately sunny day, and saw something he never expected to see again.

An entire field of white protrusions was in front of him, seeming to come from the ground. Bones. Curved, blunt and gigantic bones. This forest of bone was about half the height of the trees.

"Bone-Bastard?" thought Naruto out loud. He remembered Fuzzy-Brows and Gaara telling them that the Bone-user – Naruto had never really gotten his name – had transformed a large area and created pillars made completely out of bone. This must have been that area.

*ROOOOAR*

A large entity charged him from the side, just within his peripheral vision. Dodging to the side, this entity was faster than he had expected, catching him and shoulder barging him into a tree.

Naruto hadn't expected that, slapping himself for not being ready for an ambush. He looked up and saw a giant white figure in front of him. The King of Hell from back in Konoha. It came at him again, its mouth opening and closing, making chomping noises.

'_Shit! It wants to eat me!'_

*NOM*NOM*NOM*NOM*

Naruto jumped off from the tree, rolling to the side. He formed hand seals uneasily, a combination he wasn't used to.

"Earth Style: Hellish Swamp!" yelled Naruto. A loud gurgling sound was heard as the ground beneath the King of Hell fell in on itself, becoming a swamp beneath its neck.

"SINK!" This command caused the swamp to start sucking the beast down to it's depths. The King of Hell opened its mouth and a man sized object flew out, unfurling in the air to reveal Naraka.

Naraka raised his hand and the King of Hell disappeared, leaving the swamp empty. The older ninja returned his gaze to the amateur sage.

"So you're the first one?" asked Naruto rhetorically as he stepped up to the older man.

"Where're the others?" Naruto asked as he tried to sense them out. Before he could, however, Naraka already attacked.

Naraka answered a split second later, appearing in Naruto's face thrusting a shining object towards him. Naruto ducked his head swiftly to the side, and brought up his arm to attack. He dodged the first kunai strike but instead of breaking Naraka's arm, he got his own arm cut by the kunai Naraka was wielding. Naruto's eyes opened wide in shock, a kunai had just cut him in sage mode.

'_What the…?'_

Naruto looked dumbly at the cut for second before realization struck.

'_He has to be channeling chakra through those kunai, there's no other way a kunai can penetrate sage mode'_

Naruto jumped backwards, skidding across the grass as he did so. He looked at Naraka as Naraka arranged himself into an attacking stance. A kunai knife in each hand; the right in an overhand grip and the left in an underhand.

Naruto didn't even have the chance to come up with a defense before Naraka was on him again, a downward slash from the right hand followed up by an uppercut slash by the left. Naruto dodged to his left, hearing the kunai cutting the air a few inches away from his ear.

Running towards the bones, Naruto pushed his sage chakra into his legs and jumped onto them, jumping from peak to peak to head towards the middle. Putting his feet on two peaks and bending his legs, he assumed his standard Low Toad Stance.

Naraka threw his kunai at the nearest bone to him as he went through hand seals at a similar rate to what Deva had earlier. Finishing up his hand seals, he pulled more kunai out of his pouches and threw them at the same bone as before, but slightly higher each time and with nearly no blade left showing.

Running at the bone, Naraka pushed off from the ground, jumping up to meet Naruto. Standing up on the bone, balanced perfectly, he spoke.

"Your acrobatics are worthless Kyuubi. Being able to climb like a monkey will not bring you victory. Now, I will cut you down where you stand." said Naraka as he formed more hand seals, these ones slower, more deliberate.

The giant head wearing a hat with the symbol for king on it rose from the ground behind Naraka. The King of Hell was back

"I won't let you do that!" yelled Naruto, running along the bones with an awkward gait. The low toad stance was not meant to travel very fast.

"Nothing is going _in_, Kyuubi." Said Naraka smoothly "Infinite Armory"

The King of Hell opened its mouth wide, reaching down to the very ground, then leant backwards. As if thrown by an unknown force, multiple objects started to emerge from it's mouth like a fountain. These objects glittered in the sun until they started to follow the most basic rule of gravity; what goes up must come down.

As they started to fall, their true nature became prevalent. Hundreds and hundreds of kunai knives were falling from the sky.

Out of the many kunai, one of the had already flow towards Naruto. Confident in the defensive power of his skin now that it was backed up with Nature Chakra, Naruto didn't even bother to evade, instead focusing on how exactly to overcome this Pain. That proved to be a mistake; Naruto flinched as the blade still cut him and caused bleeding.

'_Oh shit! Sage Mode won't defend me against these!' _realization dawned upon Naruto, and he did what he had been taught to do when facing an attack you couldn't properly predict; he ran. Like there was a ramen free-for-all at Ichiraku, and the entire Shinobi world was trying to stop Naruto from getting there, he ran.

"**Unless it's a suicide attack, the opponent won't hurt themselves with their own attack"**. One of Jiraiya's many lectures sounded through his head again.

Now he had to trust that Naraka wasn't planning a suicide attack.

Releasing his stance temporarily, he started running as fast as he could towards Naraka, he worked out his plan in his head.

'_Stay close; don't move the fight till the kunai stop falling'_

As Naruto reached him, Naraka suddenly shot into movement before the blond could do anything. With an expertly done and completely unexpected motion, the blond was thrown over Naraka's shoulder straight into the rain of kunai. The loud poof of smoke as the shadow clone exploded proved that Naruto wasn't all about learning advanced techniques on his travels. His use of the Substitution Technique had gotten a lot better too. Just below Naraka where a large piece of bone had splintered off over time was Naruto, forming two Sage Rasengans in his hands.

Jumping up behind Naraka, he lunged forward with both palms. Naraka pushed off from his bone, backflipping onto another just on the edge of the rain. Naruto jumped backwards to a bone just in front of Naraka, put his hands on said bone and kicked backwards. He felt his foot make contact with…nothing.

'_What? He's right there!' _

Seeing Naraka from between his legs, he saw the Akatsuki perform a roundhouse kick in the air, the heel of his foot aimed straight at Naruto's chest. It knocked the air out of him, throwing him dangerously close to the edge of the area without kunai, his safe zone.

"Ooo…" moaned Naruto, holding his stomach with one hand and keeping his balance with the other. "What the…"

Naruto held his hand out in front of him and saw something weird. His arm seemed to stretch on a lot further than he knew it should.

'_Asshole messed with my depth perception…must be a genjutsu'_

Naruto had dealt with genjutsu users in the past, and his method was both brutal yet effective. Stop every genjutsu they throw at him by purging his system and then blasting it with more chakra than his opponent put into the technique.

Naraka watched in slight interest as the teen stopped using chakra, having to use his own balance to stay on the bone as his features returned to normal for a second. Before the God of Wrath could make a move though, the boy released more chakra than Pain could have expected to the surface. So much so that the bone Naruto was standing on started to crack under the pressure.

"You are better than you look Kyuubi. Why look, the rain has stopped" said Naraka whimsically.

Naruto looked around and sure enough, the kunai had stopped falling, leaving the entire field of bones littered with kunai.

The silence was only momentary as Naraka ran sideways before charging at Naruto again. Picking up a handful of kunai in each hand, he threw four into the air and two at Naruto. After this he jumped after the kunai he had thrown up in the air. Naruto dodged the two that were thrown at him easily, moving back into his stance.

*SCHUNK*

A kunai embedded itself in the bone where Naruto's foot had been a split second before.

*SCHUNSCHSCHUNK*

Three more followed suit quickly, each one would have hit a vital spot had Naruto not jumped away after seeing Naraka grab the kunai out of the air.

*SHWICK*

"GAH!" yelled Naruto as he looked at his left arm, quickly staining red around the kunai now embedded in his bicep.

Naruto grabbed the kunai and wrenched it from his arm. He was reminded of a time when he did nearly the same thing in reverse to get rid of some poison. He felt a thrum in the metal, examining it closer now it was in his hand.

'_Chakra conducting metal… I knew it! Then those kunai must have been filled with his chakra beforehand. That's why the rain was able to hurt me.'_

Naraka didn't give him an opportunity to breathe, falling to earth and jumping straight at Naruto. Naruto didn't duck in time, too occupied with his arm, receiving a punch to the side of his head and a kick to the chest for his trouble. He was thrown several feet away, nearly crushing a bone as he landed on in. Feeling the kunai in his hand, the younger ninja threw it swiftly at the approaching realm, the realm grabbing it out of midair as if it were a party trick.

Naruto got up and jumped at Naraka, holding his left arm to stop the bleeding temporarily. He kicked rapidly, trying to force the uncanny man backwards to give him some room. Naraka was at the advantage; jumping onto Naruto's left shoulder, including the right hand, with his left foot and kicking the blond squarely in the chin with the right.

The teen was forced even further away, his control on the fight waning. Naruto dropped his stance and fell into the field of bones. Naraka followed quickly, catching up to the now slower moving shinobi, his kunai waiting in his right hand. He made an extra step forward to close the tenuous gap, bringing the blade up as he did and around Naruto's neck.

Feeling the air move as the kunai approached, Naruto didn't dare look down in case he stabbed himself in the neck. He threw himself to the left as hard as he could, feeling a tingle across his throat as he did.

As he ran among the bones, he trailed a finger across the tingling feeling and looked at it. Blood. A thin cut now adorned his neck from the center near his Adam's apple to just under his right ear.

Reaching into his pouch, Naruto reached for an exploding tag. He channeled the necessary chakra into it and threw it in the general direction of Naraka. Not looking back, he heard the explosion and knew he had but a few seconds.

Rushing through the bones, nearly tripping over his own feet, Naruto found a large bone he could hide behind briefly.

'_Shit Shit Shit!'_ panicked Naruto to himself as he felt himself starting to hyperventilate, focusing chakra into his wounded arm to ease the pain and bleeding. _'He nearly just slit my throat… this guy… he's a monster.'_

"I will find you Kyuubi, and you shall die" said Naraka, as he stepped towards where he saw Naruto go.

Naruto's breathing grew even faster. He was genuinely terrified.

'_He's nearly killed me three times now._' He was right, Naraka had been the realm closest to killing him all throughout his previous fight. _'And more then that; even in Sage Mode I'm weak against his attacks.'_

'_Dammit…DAMMIT!' _

"**To be brave is to accept your fear and overcome it. For you, to be a sage is to fear everything, but to never be so scared you stop" **Naruto remembered Fukusaku's words before he left. Letting his breathing rate start returning to normal, he began to think.

"**I'm not gonna run away, I never go back on my word!" **The words he said to Neji after Neji brutally fought Hinata rang in his mind.

'_Thanks Pa…Neji… even when you're not here, you're still helping.'_

As Naraka reached the bone where Naruto was sat, he leant over the edge.

"SAGE RASENGAN!"

A large white object flew past Naraka's head, having been barely dodged. He then dodged another one before looking down at what Naruto was doing.

A group of Naruto's now stood where one had before, each of them forming a Sage Rasengan in their hands.

Each Naruto forced the ball of chakra into the base of a bone, including the one Naraka was standing on, separating it from the stump. Naraka jumped off just as a Naruto kicked it upwards. With the surrounding bones also destroyed, Naraka had lost a great deal of maneuverability; he was unable to change his direction in mid-air quickly without a foothold.

The Narutos continued this assault, kicking whole bones upwards at Naraka until half a dozen were up in the air at the same time.

With a poof, there were now 5 more shadow clones. Naraka looked bemused as he started to use the flying bones to run at the group, both his kunai in an overhand grip.

"Substitution Technique!"

6 Narutos substituted themselves with a poof, leaving behind a piece of bone each.

Naraka was stopped in his tracks from his run as four Narutos grabbed his limbs, securing him to the bones. Thrashing his limbs wildly, Naraka threw off the shadow clones and let them explode in midair. He turned around and was met with two Naruto's coming straight for him.

"GREAT BALL SAGE RASENGAN!"

Jumping away some distance from the large attack, Naraka picked up more kunai from the surrounding bones; the same kunai he had implanted in the bone earlier.

*PHWOOO*

The giant ball of chakra impacted with the field of bones, fragments of bone flying in every direction. Squinting his eyes, Naraka tried to look through the chaos. Several bright blue lights shocked him, showing the existence of multiple Sage Rasengans coming straight for him in a surrounding semicircle.

Naraka jumped over the arc as they started to lunge towards him, the final part of the Rasengan's movements. As he finished his jump, two more Sage Rasengans came at him through the dust to the sides. Grabbing the wrists of the two clones to stop the attack, he heard a loud yell from behind him.

Before he could turn around, there was a shadow above him and then his world faded to black. Naruto could hear the echo of the loud 'crack' resounding through the clearing, even above the explosions of Shadow Clones and Rasengans.

As the group of Narutos had substituted themselves, he had used the smoke to create more shadow clones. Having hid himself in the last group of shadow clones, as soon as they had lunged, the two clones nearest to him had cancelled their attack, grabbed him and thrown him towards Naraka.

As Naruto had been thrown, the last two shadow clones had used a Sage Rasengan each to ambush Naraka now that he had landed. The attack was to act as a distraction from the real Naruto as he made his own attack.

The plan worked perfectly, Naruto's foot connected with the back of the realm's neck, killing him immediately. Only now, after having used so many Shadow Clones and Rasengans in quick succession, even Naruto felt drained.

Panting, Naruto fell down into the field of bones as his remaining shadow clones dispersed.

'_That was luck… I would have died if he'd noticed me… but I was lucky… DAMN…'_ thought Naruto, standing up. _'Well, no rest for the weary. Time to keep going, otherwise they'll really build up a head start.'_

He looked around and started to run in the direction he had seen the other 5 realms run in. Sprinting across the open field, he started to hear a loud thudding sound, perfectly in time with his footfalls.

*THUD*THUD*THUD*THUD*THUD*

Looking around, he saw raised sections of the grass he was running over. Small rectangles that didn't seem to belong where they were.

'_What the…'_

*BOOOOOOOOOM*

The explosion seemed to occur in every direction at once, before a sense of weightlessness settled on Naruto. Looking up, the sunlight was getting smaller and smaller as he fell into the ground.

Pieces of rubble collided with him as he fell, throwing him around like a whirlpool. This seemed to continue forever, when in actuality it was more like 30 seconds, until he was met by a rather hard hit to the face as he landed on the ground.

"Dammit… assholes used exploding tags, but I fell so far… "

Looking around his new environment, he realized that he couldn't see anything; even raising his own hand so close to his face that he felt the touch on his nose, he couldn't see his fingers. His vision was normally enhanced by sage mode but where there was no light to begin with, there was nothing to enhance.

There was nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to smell. This place robbed Naruto of most of his senses. The silence started to become more obvious as the only noise he could hear was the soft thump of his pulse through his eardrums.

Groping blindly for a few seconds, with a few losses of balance, Naruto found his way to the wall. Using this method, he started to work his way forwards. He didn't know what was ahead or how far he had to go, he just knew he had to keep going.

"OOOOF!" yelled Naruto as he felt a large force impact his face, knocking him into dizziness. More and more of these punches rained down on Naruto as he raised his arms to protect his head.

Letting out a quick jab of his own, he managed to grab a hold of what had hit him. Feeling the dry texture of long untied hair and the metal of piercings, he came to a conclusion.

'_Another one' _

Naruto jumped backwards, not caring that he couldn't see as long as got some distance between them. He closed his eyes out of habit and sent out a pulse of chakra, trying to find the realm by his chakra source.

There was none, he couldn't sense a chakra signature from anywhere in the vicinity.

'_What are these guys? They don't even have a chakra signature'_

Naruto looked around in vain; swinging his arms around, fists clenched hoping to hit something.

Running forwards, Naruto continued this. Arms flailing around like a hooked fish, travelling in all directions. As he ran, he felt himself hit something else. Grabbing ahold, he was determined not to let go.

"GOTCHA! Son of a bitch!" exclaimed the teen as he grabbed what he had hit.

The first thing he noticed was that the hair he was grabbing ahold of was shorter than it should have been for Human. As he punched it, he noticed the second thing.

*BWWWWAAHHHHHH*

An animalistic squeal echoed through the space he was in, making his ears hurt with the sudden change in volume.

As the creature disappeared, a brief flash of chakra caused by the destruction of its body frame lit the area, revealing a large tunnel around him, claw marks in the walls and scratches in the floor. This tunnel was created by an animal, most likely the one he had just defeated.

'_So the summoner woman is here too… that makes 2. They could ALL be down here! How am I going to deal with 5 of them if I can't SEE them?'_

Naruto then realized something, literally hitting himself as he thought of it.

'_They're on the offensive… that creature was coming to kill me. I've got to fight back… Got to __**kill**__ them… or I'll __**die**__. I __**can't **__die…'_

His own anger at himself becoming evident, the pressure of this fight was catching up with him. They weren't trying to kill him in Konoha, they were measuring his capacity. Now they were aiming to kill.

A sudden rage filled him, amplifying every emotion inside him. His fear, his hate, even his own need to survive. He felt his skin return to softness and realized, he had dropped out of sage mode.

Letting the feeling swarm over him, not caring what it is, Naruto started to feel stronger. Ignoring the burning on his skin, the pain he was causing himself, he felt relieved. He knew exactly what was happening, the Kyuubi's chakra was leaking into his system, but he didn't care.

A thin layer of chakra started to wrap around him, forming the Demon Fox's Cloak, a warm blanket that gave Naruto a feeling of security.

Looking around, he saw the world in a new clarity. He couldn't see in front of him, but could see the tunnel perfectly. The chakra he was expelling was bouncing off the walls back to him, giving a form of sonar to Naruto.

"**I **can **see!**" said Naruto to no one as he fell onto all fours. A single tail of chakra grew from his coccyx and his eyes grew slits as they changed color.

Running forward like an animal, Naruto gained speed quickly. Turning quicker than he would have thought possible, he followed the tunnels using animalistic logic.

The quickest way from them to him, was also the quickest way from him to them. So by following this tunnel, he'd be able to get to Animal in the quickest possible time.

Naruto let out a roar as he slipped down a bump in the tunnel, causing him to fall a distance to a curved edge. He hadn't expected the tunnel to end so soon, but he hadn't expected himself to move so quickly either.

He had fallen out of the hole that the creature, most likely a mole, had made in what would otherwise be a smooth wall. He looked around and found himself in a large underground cavern. The smell of mildew in the air flooded his nostrils. This place must have been a storm drain or something similar.

He let out another roar as he sensed a several large shapes ahead of him. Only their outlines could be 'seen' but that was enough to identify these things. Four gigantic animal summons. A bull, dog, tiger and a rhino. Strong summons, each one demonic in appearance but close to what they were originally. The bull's horns extended almost as long as it's body was, the dog was more akin to a wolf, the tiger had huge claws like a wolverine and the rhino's horn was nearly 30 feet long.

Hidden behind this wall of flesh, he could just sense the figures of Animal and Human. Wasting no time, he charged at the animals as if he were the Kyuubi itself. The rhino stayed where it was, anticipating Naruto's attack, Human and the other three animals moved to the side, ready to blindside him from behind a rock.

The rhino lowered its horn, ready to gore Naruto instantly, but Naruto created a chakra claw that grabbed the horn as it lifted back up, then reeled himself in onto the rhino's back. As he looked around, the tiger jumped straight at him, claws outstretched.

Naruto grabbed the claw but was thrown from the rhino's back by the force. Lying on the ground on his back, hands holding up it's paws, Naruto saw the tiger about to bite down on his head.

"**NO!**"

Naruto pushed himself forward, sliding from the claws grip and pushed himself up quickly. He got himself underneath the tiger and a target came into view. Bending down, letting the claws of chakra lengthen, he lunged at the tiger's gonads. Sinking the chakra claws into the fleshy globes, he heard an ungodly shriek as the tiger felt the pain, but this didn't stop him. He repeatedly clawed the testes and the surrounding area, not caring as blood fell on him, only to be evaporated by the heat of the chakra. A pitiful moan and foam emerged from the tiger's mouth as it slumped onto it's side. Finalizing the kill, he stabbed it's belly with his claws, ripping a gash from it's neck to the mess that was it's testicles.

Letting go, Naruto quickly dashed to the side as the Tiger fell and was dispelled and then he moved on to his next target. This was the bull, charging straight at him.

As the bull reached him, horns pointed in his direction, he held out his hands and pushed forwards.

*BBYYYAAAAA*

The bull yelled as Naruto pushed its nose into the ground, forcing the horns to bury their way deeper into the ground than the bull could retract them from. He jumped up the bull's nose, running up the bridge of the nose and kicking the bull in the eye.

The bull let out another noise of pain as its eye burnt over from the chakra still flowing. Naruto climbed onto the rough ridge where the eyebrow would be, running along until he reached the end nearest to the outside of the bull. Grabbing a handful of eyebrow hair, he let himself jump off as if abseiling. As he fell, he aimed his feet straight for the bull's temple.

When the inevitable happened, the chakra proves too much for the bull's skin. Naruto's leg cut into the bull's temple like a needle, but it was the spike of Kyuubi's chakra, extending from Naruto's foot like it so often did from his claws that killing the beast swiftly.

As Naruto pulled himself free, he felt the blood surround him and let out a yell, the feral side of him becoming more dominant.

*ROOOAAARRRR*

The echo caused the chamber itself to shiver, but Human moved forwards. While Naruto was relishing in the feeling of the blood, he didn't pay attention until Human was on him.

Human punched Naruto solidly in the gut, followed by a hook to the temple and an uppercut to the chin. With power like Human's, these would have been killing moves. But not to Naruto; even with his immense power in Taijutsu, Human barely managed to force his fists through the Cloak, gaining burns on his hands in the process. Naruto looked at Human with his blue eyes, and snarled. Punching Human back, he assumed a stance he had been taught a long time ago. Defend the entire upper body with the arms, use footwork to corner the opponent, punch with all your might.

"Thanks a lot you DICK!" yelled Naruto as he punched Human again, this time in the liver. "I might have lost control if you hadn't punched me"

Naruto's cloak remained, but his eyes returned to normal, and he lost the tail of chakra that had been following him. He was now on the same level as when he was facing Gaara in the forest outside Konoha.

Human took the punch and threw one of his own, this one landing on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto moved to the side and aimed a punch at Human's temple, but was blocked and countered by the realm.

This exchange continued, Naruto and Human punching each other, moving around each other and trying to block. Animal called her two remaining summons back to her, they wouldn't be of help in a fight where both her ally and opponent were so close together. Her dog summon had other ideas, it had seen a meal and wanted it badly. It ran towards the two brawlers, its mouth wide open and salivating at the idea of a meal. It pounced forward, ready to eat both fighters if it had to.

Suddenly, Naruto ducked down as if squatting to dodge, letting Human's blow pass overhead, put his fists next to each other and jumped with everything he had. Overextended for a split second by the strong punch, Human was unable to do anything as Naruto attacked.

"TOAD PUNCH!"

The force from the punch pushed Human into the air, straight into the path the dog summon's mouth was following. Human was yanked in mid-air as his Akatsuki mantle got caught on the dog's teeth.

The dog couldn't see in the darkness, but felt something enter his mouth, so he did what he aimed to do. Chow down.

*CRACKGRUNCHCHCKHCKCHK*

The sound of the realm being eaten was not pleasant, but Naruto had to push forward. Jumping upwards, above the dog, he focused all his effort and a lot of Kyuubi's chakra into his left foot. Bringing it high, he brought it straight down onto the skull of the summon.

*GRACKPHUNP*

The loud crack of the dog's skull cracking was followed by a sound akin to a water balloon bursting, as the creatures brains exploded from the hit.

Naruto looked up and heard stamping footsteps; the sonar sense saw the rhino charging. He ran at the rhino too, trying to get as much force under his feet as he could. As the rhino lowered his horn, Naruto jumped. The horn started to rise with him, threatening to gore Naruto like earlier, but this time was different.

Naruto pulled out a kunai – one of the kunai Naraka had left behind, Naruto had picked several up just in case they would come in handy, like now – and threw it into the base of the horn, giving him a target. It embedded itself a few inches from the base, all the way to the hilt. Using what little control he had over gravity, he turned and aimed a kick straight at the kunai's handle.

*SCHANG*

The kick landed at an angle, bending the handle of the kunai and ruining this part of the plan. The rhino was now in pain and going into a rampage because of it, making the next part of the job that much harder.

'_Shit… just what I needed'_

Grabbing a hold of the horn, Naruto slid down tightly, avoiding been thrown off by the now stampeding rhino. Holding on tightly, he placed his feet on either side of the horn, his back facing the rhino's eyes, removed the kunai and placed his fingers in the crack the kunai had made. With every second, Naruto poured more of the Kyuubi's chakra into the horn, corroding and destroying the tough material until it could give way for him to move.

*HHNNNNRRRGGGHHH*

Naruto strained to pull the horn upwards, causing the rhino to try to remove him that much harder. Feeling as though he was in barrel going over a waterfall, Naruto gave a final pull, feeling the horn snap and heard the rhino scream.

**

Pushing the horn to fall over, it's point facing the rhino's eye, Naruto wound back his leg and kicked the bottom of the base as it fell. The force from the kick was immense, overcoming inertia and penetrating the rhino's eye completely.

A sea of blood emerged from the eye socket, pouring out like continuous tears, as the rhino slumped over dead; it's brain had been stabbed by its own horn.

Jumping off, Naruto was panting. His demon cloak was still active, damaging his muscles all the while.

He then saw Animal, forming a fighting stance. She intended to fight him; because even if she ran away, he'd still catch her.

Naruto wasted no time, closing the space between them in a split second, ignoring his own tiredness. He lunged at Animal but she dodged backwards, heading towards another opening in the storm drain, this one part of the draining system.

Naruto pulled a handful of shuriken from his leg holster, throwing all of them at once at the realm. Several small poofs appeared in midair, directly in the way of Naruto's shuriken.

Each shuriken then fell to the floor, attached to a single large spider each.

Animal made more hand seals, a poof appearing and a large wall of something ran into Naruto, pushing him back some more. Feeling the wall, it wriggled under his grip, slithering and thin creatures.

'_Worms… yuck'_

Pushing through the wall by sheer force, Naruto kept lunging for her; but she was agile, dodging every attempt he made to attack her.

'_Dammit… Stay still'_

Naruto let himself lunge forwards more than he felt safe to, this time just scraping her chest. He felt something to grab a hold of so he did. Holding on tightly, he refused to let go of the chest flesh he had managed to grab.

Animal raised her foot and kicked his chest, causing him to loosen his grip. She then pulled away, turned and fled openly into the tunnel.

Naruto was forced onto the ground again, the Kyuubi's chakra starting to really affect him now. He let the demon cloak drop as he put his hands to either side of him and got up.

Running in the darkness was harder than he had ever thought, he had to rely on his less then stellar sense of hearing to locate Animal's footsteps and plan the route ahead. More than once, he ran headlong into a wall because he couldn't tell any difference.

Gradually, Naruto started to hear things, the noise of a city. Pedestrians, vendors, just life in general. Manholes also started to litter the ceiling, small umbra of light appearing around the ring from the sunlight. At first the sudden and unexpected appearance of light had blinded him for a second, but he was glad for it. Now at least he could see where he was going.

He could now see the shadow of Animal running just ahead of him. Accelerating he was soon near her, when she stopped. Naruto couldn't stop running in time and bowled over her, rolling out of the fall and forming his stance before she could attack him.

He paused when he saw her still on the floor on her front. Walking over cautiously, he kicked her over onto her back. He let out a breath in shock as he saw what had happened. Where he had grabbed her breast beforehand, the demon cloak had still been active. The demonic chakra had spread to her flesh and the surrounding area, including her heart. She had been retreating to die.

"Well… thanks for leading me here… I take it the last three are up there yes?" Naruto asked no one, looking at the corpse.

Naruto sat down beneath the manhole cover, panting for breath. He had been fighting for hours now, such a high level was truly a true test of his stamina. Opening the small pack he brought from Mt Myoboku, he looked at what Ma had packed for him.

Expecting large amounts of vegetation and moss, he was surprised to find high sugar toffee, strips of dried beef and a high energy drink made by the toads called Screech.

Stuffing several strips of beef into his mouth and wetting his mouth with a large mouthful of Screech, he chewed vigorously and swallowed quickly. He hadn't eaten in over 8 hours so he was hungry.

Coughing hard as he swallowed too quickly, he panted for more breath, letting him pay off some of his oxygen debt. He took several deep breaths, each one giving him the air he desperately wanted.

Turning back to his food, he started breaking off some pieces of toffee. He was surprised to find it chewy and flavorsome but not nearly as sticky as he expected.

Letting the food settle in his stomach he stood up, getting ready to fight again.

'_I should be in Ame by now, so they'll all probably be up there as some kind of last resort'_ thought Naruto _'I'd better get into sage mode down here, don't want to get ambushed like last time'_

Sitting down, Naruto started to meditate. He concentrated on emptying his mind again, becoming still and letting himself become one with nature. Feeling that tingling sensation as his skin became as solid as iron, becoming an outlet for nature's power.

'_I'm on the downward hill now, three down, three to go.' _Thought Naruto; standing back up and walking to underneath the manhole cover.

He was ready to wage his own private war.

Bending his legs, he pushed as much chakra as he felt appropriate into his legs, letting the muscles tense as he got ready.

"Showtime"

*CLANG*

Naruto jumped upwards, decimating the manhole cover as he reached the top of the tunnel, entering Ame in a way sure to gain attention. Breathing deeply as the fresh air hit him, he looked around. The entire city looked like something from a storybook; buildings that reached into the sky, steam pipes travelling almost as many routes as pathways and even those paths were constructed from concrete, not dirt like almost every path in Konoha.

It was late afternoon and everyone was busy in the marketplaces, trying to get last minute deals on vegetables or on their way to a restaurant for an evening meal.

This had all been stopped by the sudden appearance of the toad sage, having upturned the market stall half way over the manhole cover and throwing the entire area into disarray.

'_Wait… that might not have been the best idea I've ever ha-'_

Naruto barely had time to finish that thought before a flash of black and red appeared in his vision. As it enveloped his sight, Naruto realized he was facing the most muscular of the Realms.

Below him, he could hear the civilians and ninja alike shouting loudly.

"LORD PAIN! SAVE US!" "WE TRUST YOU LORD PAIN!" "LORD PAIN WILL KILL THIS GUY!"

Asura, the muscular realm, collided with Naruto just as Naruto reached the peak of his jump, throwing them both into the side of one of the tall buildings. The crowd below cheered as the wall of the building exploded in a shower of plaster and concrete.

The debris that had broken off from the skyscraper fell to the ground with no ceremony straight into one of the marketplaces. Civilians below screamed as they realized that the rubble was falling directly above them.

"Shinra Tensei"

*GGGASSSSSHHH*

The bricks and mortar hit the floor with a crash, the impact breaking the floor below it. On the floor surrounding the rubble were the civilians that had been under it a moment ago, all staring at two figures. Deva stood near the rubble, breathing slightly heavier than usual and Preta stood further away, carrying the more feeble civilians.

"Move to your houses, we shall take care of this menace. Tell others to not interfere, this man is our target alone." Said Deva to the civilians "Now go"

Preta put the civilians on the ground and joined Deva. They each started to run up the building's wall towards Asura and Naruto.

Naruto kicked Asura off of him, attaching himself to the wall with chakra. The huge man wasn't pushed back far, but it was enough to give Naruto room to run up the wall. His low toad stance gave him a center of gravity much closer to the wall, while Asura's tall build and heavy mass made his much higher. Naruto was winning in terms of stability.

Kicking Asura hard in the chest downwards, he followed this up by a palm thrust to the gut. Asura was pushed back further than before, gravity working against him fully now, giving Naruto an opportunity to run back up the wall to the higher ground.

Asura chased him back though, aiming fully powered punches at him as soon as he was within range. Leaping forwards up the wall, Naruto pushed off with both feet, letting them travel over his body, and aimed for Asura. The Akatsuki member nimbly spun to the side in a way unbefitting a man of his size, letting the sage past him as his back was turned.

Seeing an opportunity for more room, Naruto let his feet contact the wall before pushing off as hard as he could. He felt himself become airborne and looked around himself more intensely. He was heading for the flat roof of a building lower down than he was currently at, not the best positioning but an opportunity for breathing room.

Or at least it would have been, had he not felt a change in the wind pattern behind him. Before he could turn around, he felt a heavy impact between his shoulder blades as if he had been struck by a hammer. His speed and trajectory had been altered, he was now flying straight into the roof he aiming for, but at this speed and angle, it wasn't going to be good.

*GASSSH*

Naruto hit the roof roughly, shattering some of the roofing beneath him. Naruto let out a wheeze of pain as his breath as knocked from him, from both the hit in the air and the crash landing.

'_Damn… this is getting insane' _thought Naruto jumping to his feet. He looked around and staggered, the world was spinning around him. _'Come on! Now is not the time to get a concussion!' _

Asura landed soon after blocking Naruto's route to the street, his hands still connected from the hammer-blow he gave Naruto in the air.

"DRILLING AIR BULLET!"

Naruto fired a large bullet of compressed air from his mouth, now expanding thanks to the decrease in pressure. The bullet missed Asura's head and passed harmlessly into the air above the street. The concussion was ruining Naruto's aim.

Trying again, he formed the hand seals as he ran at Asura. The helmeted realm assumed a fighting pose, ready to counter any physical attack. Naruto finished the seals and called the name of the technique.

"DRILLING AIR BUL-"

He would have finished it, but unknown to him, he had cracked more of the roof than he thought when he crashed. A segment of the roof was sticking up a few inches, enough to trip on. And with his concussion, trip he did.

Naruto fell to the ground a meter away from his target, his stomach being the first thing to hit the floor as he looked up at Asura. The wind was driven out of his mouth by the force of his fall, activating the technique. Asura closed his arms over his vitals, shocked by the sudden technique. .

The air was stronger than it should have been, having been given more force by Naruto's fall. As Naruto's eyes focused again, he saw something fall to the ground in front of him. A hand… Asura's right hand.

'_Now! He only has one hand!'_

Naruto got onto his hands and knees, determined to take advantage of this situation. This was shattered when he felt a large heat coming towards him, starting to prickle his skin before he could even see it.

He looked past Asura, eyes opening as the day seemed to get that much brighter. Asura leapt away from Naruto down onto the wall of the building.

'_What the…'_

Then it all made sense.

A dragon of pure fire appeared in his view, flames licking it's very outline, a haze appearing like an invisible shield around it. It opened its mouth, the image of roaring with none of the sound except a wild crackle from the flames. Staring at him, it started to hurt his eyes to look at. Then it charged.

'_CRAP!'_

Naruto leapt to the side, dodging the flaming being of destruction as it's chakra supply ran out causing it to fizzle out. He turned his head around wildly, looking for the one who used that technique.

'_It had to have been that leader body'_

His thoughts were interrupted by a large amount of glowing from below the edge of the roof. Naruto was halfway to the edge when his unasked question was answered. Several more dragons of varying elements were coming for him. Jumping back from the edge, Naruto started to think what he had to work with.

Before he could finish his thoughts, the dragons all charged. Naruto took a step backwards, which evolved into a full blown sprint as he ran on the surface of the roof whilst avoiding the cracks he made.

The first to attack was a water dragon, crashing down so close to Naruto that most of his back got hit by the spray. It's water spread out to cover a large portion of the roof.

"Shadow Bind Technique"

Hearing that familiar technique, Naruto turned around looking for Shikamaru. It was that that saved his life. He spotted a shadow under the water, shooting its way towards _him_. Jumping out of the way, he leapt across from the roof of this building to the wall of the adjacent building.

As soon as his feet left the building, a lightning dragon struck where he was standing. Naruto saw the water on the roof crackling dangerously after that attack.

'_He used Shikamaru's technique… can he really use all Ninjutsu?'_

*FWOOO*WOOOAAHHH*

This thought cost Naruto dearly as an earth dragon smashed into him from the side, throwing him into the building Asura previously threw him into.

*CRASH*

Breaking glass, concrete and wood, Naruto continued to be thrown through the building. His flight was halted by him hitting the concrete wall on the other side of the building, forming a dent in it like a pimple.

"Shit…" muttered Naruto as he got to his feet. It wasn't every day you nearly became a wrecking ball. Looking around, he had been thrown straight into what looked like an administration office. Papers were flying everywhere thanks to his journey, with desperate men and women jumping on desks to grab theirs out of the air. Several desks had either been destroyed or blown over as he had shot through, as well as several doors.

People started to shriek wildly as they realized he was starting to walk forwards, screaming prayers and weak threats his way, all the while running away.

'_I'll show them a real wrecking ball'_

Holding his hand out in front of him, he felt the chakra dance in his palm like it had so many times before. Forming a large ball, the chakra stopped dancing and became a truly dangerous technique.

"Sage Rasengan!"

*CRASH**TINNNGGGG*

The wall behind him broke, shattering what little glass remained intact in the process. Naruto turned around, arm half outstretched with the ball of chakra in his palm. Seeing what crashed through the wall for the first time, he saw it was the fattest realm, with the hair slicked back.

Opening his mouth, Preta sucked on an oversized and invisible straw, loudly slurping. The Sage Rasengan was quickly absorbed by the realm, before Naruto had even realized his attack wasn't working.

Finishing his meal, in the loosest sense of the word, Preta continued his forward motion, running straight for Naruto. Naruto was still falling forwards from his lunge with the Sage Rasengan, not able to stop himself.

Preta belly slammed Naruto in an instant, the teen's head becoming temporarily lost in the realm's enormous girth. As the realm hit Naruto; the sage headbutted Preta in the jaw as hard as he could. With an almighty push, Preta forced Naruto backwards, the teen's body skidding on his heels as he tried to regain some balance.

"Woaaaah" exclaimed Naruto as he tried to stay upright, swinging his arms randomly as he went.

Naruto looked forward as his trail of destruction continued, seeing Preta start pushing forwards. The fat man was surprisingly agile for someone so large.

Naruto shivered. Pushing off of the balls of his feet, Naruto jumped straight up along the wall to the outside

'_A cold breeze inside means there's an opening in the wall nearby' _thought Naruto, remembering a drunken Tazuna proclaiming this little piece of construction advice to him repeatedly and loudly while they stayed at his house.

"**I'm telling you kid, I'm a **_**master**_** bridge builder and a **_**master**_** construction worker and a **_**master**_** lov-"**

"**FATHER! Not in front of Inari!" yelled Tsunami**

"**I'm telling you old man, I don't care about how you build a house, I'm here to protect you by beating up all the bad ninjas" moaned Naruto.**

"**LIES! YOU CARE! I'LL MAKE YOU CARE! If you feel a cold breeze when building a house, what does it mean?" said the old man making an awed face as he looked at the gathered ninja in his dining room.**

**Deciding to humor him, Naruto replied "No, what?"**

**Tazuna looked from side to side quickly, before beckoning Naruto closer. Naruto played along and leant in to listen to the drunken man, holding his breath to avoid the smell of cheap liquor. **

"**THERE'S STILL A HOLE IN YOUR WALL YOU IDIOT! HAHAHAHA!" yelled the old man, causing the ear Naruto had been listening with to ring as he jumped back and landed on his ass. **

"**Damn it, old man!" yelled the annoyed 12 year old, being restrained by Kakashi as Sakura and Sasuke looked on.**

Finding himself slowing down from his jump as he reached the peak of it, Naruto reached out and stuck himself to the side of the building using chakra. Standing up, he assumed Body Toad Stance, the medium of the 3 main stances. Legs spread and knees only slightly bent, this form was a more versatile stance than Low, which was mainly a defensive stance.

"You seem amused by something, Kyuubi" a voice came from behind him, or in perspective, above him.

Swinging himself around, he was met by the sight of Deva and Asura.

The two realms stayed in place, returning the glare Naruto was now sending them. They stayed this way for several moments until a crash from the hole Naruto emerged from echoed in their ears.

Preta stumbled out of the hole, tripping over a loose piece of wreckage and causing himself to fall over. As he fell, the dislodged brickwork hit his head and redirected it into a window.

Falling downwards, Preta palmed the wall, pushing his chakra into it and sticking. He climbed to his feet and faced Naruto.

"Your body is strong, it caused more pain than you can imagine to body-slam you" said a voice from next to his ear.

*OOF*

Naruto groaned as the wind was knocked out of him, two solid punches hitting the lower parts of his lungs from behind.

Falling forwards, Naruto flew through hand seals while pushing himself to the side. As his head started to brush the ground, he pushed it forwards and into his chest, rolling sideways and cancelling any impact force. As his legs cleared his head from the roll, he looked straight into Asura's eyes.

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball!"

The large ball of flame that Naruto had learned by watching his old teammate perform it countless times, acted as a visual shield as he finished his roll, turning and standing up in time to see the last remnants of his fireball being eaten by Preta.

Asura was soon within striking distance, having started to run towards Naruto as soon as Preta had intercepted the fireball. The muscular realm lashed out as quickly as he could, a hook aimed squarely at Naruto's chin. Naruto ducked his head to the right only to have to dodge a knee as well. Jumping backwards, Naruto regained his stance and continued his offensive as soon as he landed; he had to keep up with the flow of the battle, Naruto knew, or else he was already defeated.

"**Listen Brat, every battle has a rhythm If you lose that rhythm, then you've already lost. You won't hear it much, but every experienced ninja knows it. Consider yourself lucky I'm such a swell guy to teach you this" said Jiraiya, sipping on Urzuni sake. This in-particular fine beverage had been purchased using Lil Froggy's contents, whose owner was now glaring daggers at his teacher.**

Launching himself back at the realm, Naruto moved into his fastest and most mobile stance. High Toad Stance. With this stance, he could move his whole body around a lot quicker at the cost of sacrificing his defense if he missed. It was his most offensive stance.

About 2 meters away from Asura, Naruto jumped sideways, his legs swinging in an arc set to collide with the realm's head. The speed of his turning and the power behind it surprised even him.

'_Damn… Why don't I use this more often?'_

As he flew towards Asura, he saw everything happen quickly. Asura moved smoothly the side, completely dodging the teen sage's attack, before driving his elbow into Naruto's ribcage.

*GWAH*

'_Grooooo… that's why…'_

"**To use the High Toad Stance is to abandon all defenses and go for the kill. To use it in the middle of a fight is incredibly risky, it leaves you open to any sort of counter-attack with no way to retaliate" urged Fukusaku as he taught Naruto the Gamaken. **

Naruto looked to the side and saw Deva there, his hand still outstretched from the use of Bansho Tenin.

'_Bastard… so he pulled the Gai-Sensei wannabe away, making him dodge' _

Naruto put his hand to his injured ribs and moved away, all the while watching the realms. Putting his hands together, he formed a single cross-shaped seal.

"Shadow Clone Technique!" said Naruto, wheezing for breath slightly.

Slowly, clones of Naruto appeared, each one starting to form circles, concentric circles. Along with the original, they started to run, each circle in opposite directions. Co-ordinated by their identical minds, they started to move the circles towards the realms. Deva started to form handseals for a large scale attack, to burn them all in a single stroke.

_'Now!' _

"Substitute!" yelled the entire group of nearly 40 clones. The smoke from the large amounts of the technique hiding them from view. As the smoke disappeared, there was two groups of concentric circles, each smaller than the original one. They carried on their movements, weaving the circles in and out of each other in perfect synchronicity. To anyone above, it may have looked like a dance. Deva stopped forming the seals, unable to get them close enough together

Soon, Pain understood the reasoning behind such a ludicrous idea. He was hiding himself in plain sight, amongst various clones of himself so that his exact position remained unknown.

"Substitute!"

The group was enclosed in smoke again. This time, when it was cleared, things were different. The entire group had encircled the group of realms, separating them into two groups. Deva surrounded by two circles, Preta and Asura surrounded by the others.

'_He must be after me' _thought Deva

Before the smoke had even cleared, the clones were moving again, running the same pattern as before. But this time, something was different.

"Substitute" "Substitute" "Substitute" "Substitute" "Substitute" "Substitute" "Substitute" "Substitute" "Substitute" "Substitute" "Substitute" "Substitute" "Substitute" "Substitute"

The clones around Deva kept substituting themselves.

"Trying to conceal yourself Kyuubi? It won't wo-" said Deva, as he started to form more seals.

"RASENRENGAN!" was all Deva heard before looking down, seeing a pair of still glowing blue balls protruding from his chest.

"Fast..." muttered the spiky haired man, as he felt his body explode in pain, the delayed reaction of the Rasengan.

"You'd better be ready Pain, because when I find your real body, you'll think this trick was pathetic" Muttered Naruto into Deva's ear.

Naruto pulled away from the realm, not even looking at its front. Not that there was much of it left, Deva's body looked like someone had exploded the skin and muscle from the front of his body only.

Turning his attention to Preta and Asura, he saw that the two had already destroyed the clones surrounding them and were on their way over to try and stop him. Asura picked up the seemingly heavier realm, and threw him heartily at Naruto. After this he stopped, closed his eyes and started to emit a low buzzing noise.

The realm with the slicked back hair had his arms crooked in front of him, ready to grapple anyone who got in his way. Naruto ducked to avoid this, covering his injured ribs the most. Preta simply held his arm out and grabbed Naruto's collar, yanking the teen with him as he travelled.

Pulling Naruto into his chest, Preta continued his path, getting far away enough that Naruto would not be able to stop what was coming. Naruto struggled against the hold, but in midair the realm's grip held him tightly, draining his chakra with abandon.

Preta landed on the wall, reattaching himself with chakra, and threw Naruto into the wall's surface. Picking him up and grabbing Naruto's arms, Preta pinioned them behind his back, exposing his front to Asura.

"Let GO! You son-of-a-bitch!"

Naruto struggled with all the strength he had, which was a lot. The sage's shoulders started to crack with the pressure he was putting on them.

"Warring Bullets!" called the Asura realm. With a loud crunch, the realm's head opened up into segments, disgusting Naruto slightly, having never seen someone modify their body this badly beyond Orochimaru, exposing the smaller metallic structure that normally housed explosives. In this case, he had run out of explosives and was now using chakra guided lumps of metal.

The howl as chakra gathered at the apex of the dome as Asura aimed at Naruto, still struggling against Preta.

Naruto saw this, and fear flashed through his eyes.

'_That's gonna kill me'_

Swinging his legs behind him, he felt his foot catch on something. He let out a gasp of what could only be called relief as he hooked Preta's ankle. Bringing his foot forwards, he heard the distinctive fizzle as the chakra imbued bullets shot towards him. As he completed his move, his whole weight bringing him and Preta to the ground, he leapt away from the large realm, lest he be caught again, making sure to catch the realm in the crotch as he did so.

As he landed, his left leg bent to absorb the impact a lot further than it should have. Looking down, he saw nothing different except where his trousers met his sandals. Instead of the normally tanned skin, there was shiny green skin.

'_FUCK… I'm turning into a toad'_ thought Naruto, backing around the corner of the building to avoid Asura's attacks.

Letting the sage chakra fall from him, like pouring a bucket of cold water over his head, he returned to his normal form. Naruto nearly fainted in relief as his leg transformed back to normal as well.

'_Good, I broke the connection quickly enough…'_

He couldn't continue this train of thought any longer, as Asura ran around the corner with his head already open and glowing.

"SHI-"

The rest of the cuss was drowned out as the fizzle of chakra became a sound akin to white noise. Jumping away as quickly as he could, Naruto started to run up the building remembering one of his tactics sessions with Jiraiya, stumbling as he tried to take stock of his injuries.

'_Burnt torso…torn clothes…' _thought Naruto, before feeling something wet trickle down from his nose. Touching it gingerly, he heard a few cracks as it wobbled around _'Broken nose… OUCH…' _Naruto let out a hiss of pain _'Fucking rib… just went through my stomach…Dammit… I hate explosions!' _

"**Listen brat, in a battle, the side with the highest ground has the advantage"**

**Naruto sat on the ground of the clearing they had stopped in, unconvinced with his master's statement.**

"**Look at it this way Naruto, if I throw a kunai from the ground, it'll go a fair distance and then drop, yes?" said the toad sage, waiting for the affirmative from his disciple. He got it soon after.**

"**Well if I throw the kunai at the same angle but from a tree branch, it's sure to go further, yes?" **

**Another nod.**

"**So the person in the tree has a theoretically higher range, so could kill you before you could kill them. Are you seeing what I mean now?" asked Jiraiya**

**A vigorous nod was his only reply.**

"**Did you really understand that?"**

**A vigorous shake of the head from Naruto answered that question.**

**Putting his palm to his face, Jiraiya jumped into a tree just behind him and stood on the branch. **

"**Then let's see who can hit the other one first" said Jiraiya, pulling out a kunai and giving Naruto the same look that a tiger may give a gazelle.**

Looking down at his body, Naruto winced. From under the hem of his orange jacket, he could see a large patch of deep red under his skin; his intestines must have ruptured from the force of the explosion, the same force that caused his broken rib to puncture the skin on his chest. He winced as he saw a bone sticking out of his chest, but a few tenuous movements proved he could still fight with him.

'_Internal bleeding… just what I..ouch…just what I need' _

Asura and Preta were both now around the corner and on the attack. Asura in front, head closed and running in the traditional form taught to every academy student. Preta was running slightly behind, almost like a mummy with his arms bent and palms straight out, ready to absorb any chakra attacks thrown at him.

Stopping his run and forming his cross-seal, Naruto created five dozen shadow clones, the doppelgangers becoming a protective shield around him, if only for a short while.

Once the clones were in position, Naruto raised his arms, crooked at the elbow with the palms facing each other, until his hands were level with his shoulders. Gritting his teeth as pain ripped through him, he focused the chakra in opposite directions; he soon felt the chakra become malleable under his grip, like wet noodles. Pulling it apart, it did not separate into one half of ramen goodness; instead it expanded into a sphere that scared some of the highest ranking ninja in the world.

"Oodama Rasengan!"

The clones transferred from being a shield to running almost instantly. The vast majority headed towards Asura, becoming martyrs and meat-shields in equal measure. Two clones stayed with the original, giant Rasengan wielding Naruto.

Naruto pushed off down the wall, past the brawl that was occurring around Asura and straight at Preta.

The fat realm seemed to be expecting him, as his arms had lowered slightly and bent, ready to change direction should he need to. The two were getting closer extremely quickly, almost too quick to actually watch.

"EAT THIS!" yelled Naruto as he reached the man, pushing the super-sized Rasengan into Preta.

Preta on the other hand, opened his mouth and started to absorb the chakra within it. As Naruto felt Preta take a hold of the Oodama Rasengan, he let it go, the structure being maintained by Preta's sucking.

Ducking down, lower than even the Low Toad Stance, he used the moment of stillness as he legs fully bent to reactivate his sage mode. His chakra balance restored by his brief respite, the transformation finished before he could start rising. From underneath the blue ball of chakra, he could not been seen and used it to his advantage.

Kicking straight upwards, a kick he hated doing due to extreme strain on certain areas, he felt his foot contact with Preta's jaw, breaking it almost instantly and causing the realm to soar into the air.

While in the air, the two shadow clones that had followed Naruto jumped up to meet Preta with iron skinned hands and feet.

"Naruto Rendan!" yelled Naruto, joining the shadow clones in their assault.

Preta was purely disoriented.

The three Naruto's around him were attacking him in the face, ears, stomach and every other leverage point on the body. He was spinning everywhere and unable to regain his sense of direction. Including the large amount of damage he was taking from the kicks and punches, he was in trouble.

His vision switched to Asura's to try and see himself from a third person angle, but the sheer amount of Naruto's still alive blocked all vision of Preta.

The heavily damaged body of Preta was nowhere near combat ready now, but it could still absorb chakra if it wanted. It's muscles were beaten and torn and it was damn near paralyzed, but nothing keeps a good ninja down.

This continued on until a loud crunch of concrete and glass, followed by several loud poofs of smoke, told the last three Naruto's a lot. Asura has used some technique and now their visual shield was seconds away from disappearing.

Before the cloud of smoke could clear or Asura could charge blindly, the two clones combined their power to kick Preta up one last time, this time much higher than they had before. Then, one grabbed the others wrist and the other grabbed the real Naruto, panting heavily from fighting with his internal injuries and whispered in his ear.

Nodding, Naruto ran along with them; hand in wrist, like children playing a game of crack the whip. As they arrived where Preta would be landing, the first Naruto clone threw the remaining two into the air towards him. In turn, the second Naruto launched the original up into the air, on a collision course with Preta.

Clenching his abdominal muscles, grimacing in pain as his wounds made themselves known again, he spun in midair, head over ass. The timing of his clones was perfect. As he finished his spin, his foot extended and its entire weighted mass collided with Preta's head.

The splash he heard as Preta's head burst open was almost as sickening as hearing Gamakichi chow down on flies the size of eagles that he caught in Mt Myoboku.

'_One more'_

The beheaded body of Preta had followed the laws of momentum and had been thrown downwards faster than it was falling before, right into the path of Asura, who, blinded by the smoke, didn't see it until it was too late.

The impact with the heaviest of the realms knocked him off his feet, letting Naruto land and get his footing before the muscly realm could attack him.

The last realm didn't hesitate in the slightest, attacking as soon as he could move forwards. Punching the ground in front of Naruto, he forced the younger man to move backwards a fair distance. Asura leapt forwards again, aiming the punch at Naruto's feet again.

They carried on this charade of punching and dodging until the one with the least patience decided to change the game slightly.

"Try and keep up, fatty" taunted Naruto as he jumped down several stories from the building they were on onto another building's roof, his weight causing a small crater to appear. Naruto staggered in his movements briefly, the pain from his stomach becoming harder to hide behind bravado by the second.

'_Gruuuu...Damn bleeding…'_

And keep up Asura did, jumping exactly where Naruto landed, and still would have been had he not leapt off almost immediately. Naruto leapt from building to building, sometimes running around the side via the wall if the building was too tall.

His target was obvious, the large tower in the middle of Ame.

'_Where else would a god want to watch his people from than the sky?'_

It wasn't long until Naruto reached it, with Asura chasing him all the way. Having to rely on a single realm, especially Asura, was not something Pain was fond of doing.

'_This child is tricky… especially tricky' _thought Pain

Naruto started to ascend God's Tower, intent on taking down that man as soon as possible. As soon as the two were on a vertical surface again, Asura made his move.

Putting his arm up, as if aiming at Naruto who was strafing from side to side, Asura readied his attack.

"Fire" the simple command came from the big realm as a small explosion rattled his body.

The man's arm extended further then should be possible, still connected to the elbow by a long cable as it was propelled forward by the force of the small explosion.

Turning around, Naruto saw the hand half coming at him, aiming straight for his throat. As it reached him, he grabbed it out of mid-air, stopping it advancing before grabbing the wrist in both hands. He felt it try to retreat to it's master, probably for another try.

"Let's see how you like THIS!" yelled Naruto as he heaved with the strength given to him by the nature chakra.

Asura's resistance was eventually futile, the strength of the young toad sage overcoming his weight to lift the realm quickly. Too quickly.

Asura flew towards Naruto, who was now in High Toad Stance, wincing but trying to ignore his most likely bloated intestines or ruptured stomach. Using the momentum gained by Asura and his own weight, he was ready for something.

Asura struggled against the pull but being pulled by a cable that ran to the very core of his body was not something he could resist. Instead, he was ready to attack as soon as his hand reconnected, fist already outstretched.

He was ready, Asura was nearly upon him but he was ready. Hopping from one foot to another, Naruto got ready.

'_Here he comes… let's do this'_

It was over before it had even begun. A split second encounter at insanely high speeds.

Asura had shot towards Naruto like the return trip of a bungee cord, his fist ready and aiming at Naruto's gut to tear a hole right through. As he had gotten within range, Naruto had jumped, growling in pain as his insides felt like they had turned into angry centipedes, and counter-kicked the realm in the side of the head, the growl continuing into a full blown battle cry.

The realm was launched downwards with a loud crunching sound, followed by scraping and screeching as he slid against the side of the building. Not dead yet, but injured.

Naruto clenched his hand to his wound, the blood starting to make his stomach swell like a pregnant woman. Getting to his feet, he started running up the wall as quickly as he could with his current injury.

'_I've gotta finish this fight soon, or this wound will kill me before he does'_

Luckily, he had made it most of the way up the building already; he reached an open balcony with only one side open quickly and rolled in. The pain had started to get to be too much for Naruto who was now crawling on his hands and knees.

'_I'm out of chakra… If I use anymore I'll die, if I don't use anymore I'll die…. DAMMIT!' _Naruto felt silent tears run down his face _'I don't wanna die here, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die' _

Naruto repeated this mantra in his head, wanting nothing else than for all his troubles to magically disappear. His mind wandering, his body started reacting to his subconscious. He drew a kunai, and slashed it sideways across his gut, letting the blood that had been retained empty out

'_That's better… everything's feeling… gooooood now… I can just sleep… yeah…a nice sleep… then back the village… and Granny… and….and…and…'_

"**To be a sage is to fear everything, but to never be so scared you stop"**

That one sentence started to echo in his mind. Pa had said it to him just before he left… it felt so long ago to him… but it meant so much. His mind focused again, his eyes clear for the first time since he returned from Mt Myoboku.

'_I can't just give in now… I made a promise to Granny Tsunade… I'm coming back alive, and victorious'_

"I…will…not…let it…end this way!" half-growled, half-sobbed Naruto under his breath as he pushed himself back to sit on his ankles. His tears still fell, staining his cheeks with reflections.

He let his rage boil inside him, his fear, his confusion, his hurt; they all mixed together into him. That was his mind energy.

His exhaustion, every injury on his body, the limbs he could use, the parts he felt would never work again, his physical shape. That was his body energy.

Now, the two came forth together into one last spurt from a man running on empty. Chakra burst from within him, a strong solid dome of chakra. He hadn't felt this sort of chakra since his fight with Gaara all those years ago. No Kyuubi, no wind element, no nature, just him. This was Naruto Uzumaki.

Forming hand seals, he made his last gambit.

"Summoning Technique!"

Asura leapt up onto the balcony at a leisurely pace. He had been injured severely, his head now misshapen and impossible to open. He had also lost his extending arm, the cable most likely couldn't take the strain put on it.

Not that it mattered how injured he was. By entering that balcony, the Kyuubi had basically handed himself over to the Akatsuki. He was truly stuck between a rock and a hard place now. There was only one other way out of there, and it was _much_ worse than facing him alone.

He saw the teen sage kneeling, still sitting on his ankles, a loose kunai on the floor and a pool of blood around him. A wound in his stomach that Asura was sure he didn't make indicated that the Kyuubi had done it himself.

"Seppeku, Kyuubi? Surely not" mocked Asura as he walked up to him. The faint squelch of the combined blood and mildew underfoot was disgusting, but manageable.

"Of course not… Baldy…I made… a promise" panted out Naruto, his eyes closed from the sheer effort of talking.

"Then you will die where you sit" said Asura, readying his working fist, the squelch underfoot becoming louder as he trod closer.

As Asura took the penultimate step, the world seemed to collapse into a sea of blackness and warmth. As he tried to move, he realized he was stuck faster than if he been super-glued to the walls.

The walls started to tremble and light was returned to his world as his head, and only his head, was risen up.

Looking around himself, Asura was not terribly impressed. He appeared to have been caught by the Inner Decapitation Technique, but such a low grade technique couldn't hold anything this tightly.

"Summoning Technique: Crushing Toad Stomach" muttered Naruto "Crush"

Asura heard no more, as the fleshy walls around him constricted his body into nothingness before dissolving him in stomach acid.

With the head still being above the surface, it was exempted from this fate. It rolled to a stop at Naruto's knees. Unseeing and unmoving, but still seemed to be alive. It was a testament to how dead the realms were when not moving.

Naruto sat in silence, the blood from his wound dripping into the puddle already around him.

*drip**drip**drip**drip*

Then a small fizzle could be heard to anyone listening as Naruto's skin turned back to normal, the iron toad skin leaving his body. The last of his chakra starting to run out.

'_Thanks Granny… you and Jiraiya must have worked hard on this… time to see if your bets can be right'_

Naruto drew a large purple pill from out of his pocket. It was held in a special black pillbox attached to the inside of his pocket and reinforced by as many strengthening seals as could be done.

Because this was a true last resort.

"**So what's this all about Granny? I'm meant to be meeting the old perv 5 minutes ago" said an annoyed 15 year old Naruto "He promised he'd teach me a new technique!"**

**Tsunade rubbed the bridge of her nose, annoyed. She was sat opposite Naruto in her office, he was sat in the other, less comfy, chair opposite her.**

"**Brat, I spent the 2 and half years you were gone making you a super present and you can't even be patient enough to wait for it"**

**Naruto shut up soon enough but kept up the glare he was giving.**

**Tsunade had enough and reached into her secret drawer, a small drawer on the underside of the main body of the desk. No chakra locks or secret combinations, just the fact that no-one except the Hokage knew it was there and all the obvious signs of there being a drawer there removed. **

**She withdrew a small black box, no more than a half inch cubed, before giving it to Naruto. **

"**This is a pill that will encourage the Kyuubi's chakra to emerge from you. It will remain in your system and be used to heal any injury you may have. It comes at a cost though; you will feel drained of normal chakra afterwards because it flushes all non-essential chakra from your system to make room for the Kyuubi's chakra. No matter how much you have left, it will be burnt away by this thing. How you regain it afterwards is up to you, regular soldier pills won't cut it, that's for sure. " explained Tsunade, almost feeling sick at relying on the demonic fox to heal Naruto. "And Naruto… I have no idea what the long term effects will be. No-one has ever done this kind of thing before" **

**Naruto looked amusedly at the box. "So why are you giving it to me, if it'll do me that much harm?**

**Tsunade gave a sad smile.**

"**I know you, I know Jiraiya and I know the danger you're up against… call it the lesser of two evils" said Tsunade "Besides… a dead man can't keep promises now can he?"**

Naruto broke out of his reverie as he bit down on the pill. And nearly threw it back up.

'_Oh god… it's like a lemon so sour that it tastes like bile…' _thought Naruto as his face cringed and contorted in repulsion of the horrible flavor. He swallowed it down in a sudden shock as his body locked up, muscles cramping and uncramping viciously under his skin as the Kyuubi's chakra flooded his system. His stomach felt like it was a Rubik's cube in mid-solve and his blood was being pumped like an asthmatic trying to fill a balloon.

He leant his head back, mouth open in a silent scream of pain, if he had taken this during the battle, it would have ended it straight away. He wouldn't have been able to fight back or continue tracking the realms at all.

After nearly twenty minutes of constant spasms, they finally started to subside, leaving him panting breathlessly on the floor. Rolling over onto his back, the easier access to the air pleasing his lungs, he kept breathing as deeply as he could. He felt his chest, now fully smoothed over, the rib back where it belonged. The demonic chakra was leaving his body, no longer poisoning him, but leaving him as drained as promised.

Lifting his head, Naruto looked at his pack and remembered he had thrown it away before Asura had jumped onto the balcony. He also remembered the large amount of screech and food still in his pack.

Crawling slowly over to the food, he had the bottle halfway to his lips before he realized, spilling his drink into his lap at the same time.

'_I just moved over here… without pain…Granny…' _"You fucking ROCK!' yelled Naruto, immediately feeling dizzy from the sudden exertion, "Shame I need to use one of these as well…"

Naruto reachedinto his pocket and pulled out another box. This one clear, and with a pill of similar size but blue instead inside.

**Naruto was running down the streets of Konoha, about the chase the 6 realms of Pain into the forest surround Konoha, when he saw Chouji appear just to side of his running path.**

**He simply held out a small box that Naruto grabbed as he ran past. No words were exchanged.**

**Looking down at his palm, Naruto saw the same box that Chouji used when trying to retrieve Sasuke, filled with the three Akimichi pills. Along with a note and a simple message.**

"**Good luck Naruto, from all of us" **

"Thanks guys… you're there for me, even when you're not here." Said Naruto as he ate the blue pill. His metabolism kicked into overdrive, processing the pill and turning it into a soldier pill that would work on Naruto.

Where most people would have chakra overflowing, Naruto was just absorbing it all like a sponge, restoring his own massive, yet depleted, reserves back up to maximum.

Once his extremities stopped being so numb, he stood himself up, finishing the last of his screech and chewing some of his jerky still. He then hobbled over to the corner of the large room, unzipped his fly and let himself have the small pleasure of marking the enemies territory as his own.

'_If only Kiba could see me now… he'd be jealous' _thought Naruto, a somewhat stupid grin on his face. Only he could nearly die minutes ago and then have a smile on his face soon after.

Finishing up, Naruto zipped up and looked around the balcony. There was the way he came in, and a spiral staircase heading up.

"Hey, didn't you hear something coming from the upper deck?" came a loud male voice from seemingly nowhere. Footsteps echoed in the quiet room, the sounds of the city a mere whisper now.

Naruto frantically looked around, trying to place the noise. A small flicker in the corner of his eye alerted him. A staircase leading downwards, hidden in the corner, only now shown by a torchlight from below.

Running out onto the balcony, he hid around the corner before forming a few quick hand seals. Seals that he'd sworn never to use for what they were intended.

"Invisible Voyeur Technique" whispered Naruto, his form disappearing into translucence, the same kind of invisibility that his old master specialized in and used for most of his 'research'.

He heard footsteps approaching quietly, definitely more than 2, possibly even 4, moving from each side of the room he just left to the other.

'_They're searching… most likely for me'_

He couldn't look; even the slight shimmer from his translucence could give his location away and in the evening sun, that was very possible.

"Oh come on guys, this is the last place we've got to search and they aren't here! Let's go already, I have a bottle of sake at home waiting with my name on it" came a different male voice, this one younger, maybe even still adolescent.

"You shouldn't be drinking anyway… you're 19, I don't care if you're a ninja, you have to be 20 to drink if you're in my squad" said another different voice, this one female.

"But it's so good… come on Kuko, the whole of the ninja force is busy right now and we got the easiest job. Check Lord Pain's tower. Who in their right mind bursts into the middle of our city then runs straight up to our leader?"

"I don't care Aino, we're doing our job properly. Be glad you weren't asked to assist the civilians in their evacuation, remember how much they dislike peeping toms?"

Naruto heard the man shiver as if recalling horrific events.

"Fine… but why are we looking for these guys anyway. If they have the balls to infiltrate the city and the skills to back it up, a couple of chuunin like us aren't going to be able to do much"

"Remember the Takano the Eel?" asked the woman, Kuko, sarcastically.

"Not again with the Takano story… I know, I know, He let his guard down because he was way too cocky, blah blah blah , a genin stabbed him in the back, wah-wah, cry me a river"

"Mouth off to your team leader again and I'll have you court-martialed Aino" replied Kuko angrily. "You are a shinobi! Not some drunken son of a daimyo. You will do your job and like it. You could have been evacuating civilians, or sent out on an external patrol, or be like Iyoji and sent on perimeter guard _solo_! There are barely enough ninja here to complete all the tasks so we all have to multiple jobs, you got an easy job, so do it fucking properly!"

Aino stopped speaking but the same pacing continued, he was still doing his work.

"Yes team leader, sorry team leader" finished Aino, mimicking her tone.

"Oh you are so in for it when I report this to the military police you cocky piece of shit. Team, they are not here, we will report back to headquarters." Said Kuko, "Move it you scumbag, you'll be lucky if they only give you a suspension for this insubordination."

Naruto winced as he heard a palm strike flesh in several tender places. The pacing continued for a few more seconds before moving away from him, back towards the staircase. When he was sure they had all descended the stairs fully, he jumped down from the wall, landing on all fours to lower the volume of his drop.

Looking around him, Naruto discovered he had a decision to make as what to do now. He could either go up the staircase in the building or he could climb the outside of the wall.

'_Staircase… Wall… Staircase… Wall… Staircase' _thought Naruto, showing the complicated decision making process inside his head.

So Naruto walked over and started to climb the staircase, heading higher and higher, countless repetitions of the same spiral with the same damn pipes on the wall. This was utterly boring. His thoughts started to wander, going back to those who had helped him in his training.

'_Tsunade, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Yamato, Shima, Fukusaku…' _

Naruto carried on walking, mind wandering to even deeper depths. The people who had died so he could see that the world was a harsh place to be, especially for a shinobi.

'_Shizune, Asuma, Asuna, Haku, Zabuza…'_

That particular list continued for quite a while, his amount of kills almost too high for a boy his age. He then changed to a different train of thought… his friends, waiting for him back home.

'_Sakura, Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Ino, Tenten, Lee, Neji, Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon…' _

"Thanks… Everyone" said Naruto quietly as he made the final turn around the staircase, confronted by a large wooden door, already ajar, with voices coming through it.

"I'm telling you Madara, the intruders are here, in this very tower, are you honestly suggesting we wait for them!" came an alto voice, though definitely masculine

"Yes… that is exactly what I'm saying Nagato" came another voice, this one older and deeper.

"Should I go out and intercept one of them Nagato?" said a higher pitched voice, oddly melodic and even a bit sultry. A female, most likely that Konan woman from earlier.

Naruto cracked the door open slightly more than it already was until he could see all three. The three were standing in a large room, pipes running along the walls like the building's veins. The room was bright, clean and fresh; thanks to the large doors that led to a balcony that surrounded the room, one each across from the three figures and one behind them, and the vast amount of electric light bulbs in the ceiling.

The late afternoon was turning into dusk, a large amount of cloud cover concealing what little of the sun was left. It could have even been a storm that night.

Konan was just as she appeared in Konoha, except sweaty from keeping up with the realms apparently. Her blue hair was ruffled and her flower seemed to have shifted a few inches downwards, but she was obviously still near fully ready to fight.

This Madara guy was wearing the standard Akatsuki cloak as well as an orange spiraled mask that only showed one eye. A tuft of shorn black hair atop his head was all he showed of his actual body. He was an enigma, completely unreadable.

But Nagato was the biggest surprise. A slight man, skinnier than Human Realm, orange haired like the bodies and with the same Rinnegan eyes as them. He was dressed again in the Akatsuki mantle, but it did little to make him look threatening. If it wasn't for the same eyes as those bodies, Naruto might not have even taken him as a threat… no, that was a lie. Anyone associated with the Akatsuki was a threat.

'_That's Pain? This Nagato is the controller of those 6 bodies?'_

"That will not be necessary Konan… it appears one of them is already here!" said Madara looking straight at Naruto looking through the crack in the door. Naruto in turn revealed himself, opening the door and letting himself slip back into sage mode.

"Konan, leave the area. I'll follow shortly" said Nagato

Konan stepped back and opened her arms. Naruto watched confusedly for a second until what she was doing was obvious. Her legs were peeling away. Not her layers of skin, her legs were literally peeling away like paper.

The paper created a flurry around the older female, eventually calming down to reveal the transformed Konan. Her legs were gone and she was hovering six foot in the air, a pair of paper wings appearing from her shoulder blades. An angel as God's messenger.

With a quick flap of her wings, she was drifting out of one of the large, door-free opening that led onto the balcony. Naruto jumped forward at this, ready to try and catch her before she escaped.

"Get your ass back here!" yelled the sage as his arms lashed out, missing the lone female Akatsuki member by inches.

The last echoes of his yell suddenly exploded back into sound, a completely different word along with a loud crack of lightning.

"KIRIN!"

The yell came from behind the balcony entrance that Konan was flying towards, followed by a roar as something that shocked even Naruto happened.

A giant dragon made entirely of lightning had skewered the paper-woman faster than any ninja could have seen. It flew to the base of the building, causing everyone's hair to go on end as the electricity filled the room, even from such a large distance away. The electricity even caused the last few fibers of Naruto's orange and black jacket to fall away, already heavily damaged by the battle, leaving him with just his long coat to cover his upper body.

The scream of the energy as it travelled through shook Naruto's bones; he had never felt something quite as powerful as this before. A shockwave larger than any earthquake rocked the tower, threatening to pull it from its very foundations.

'_I don't think anything could stop that technique… but who is it?'_ thought the young toad sage as he looked at the entrance.

From the doorway stepped a lone figure, hands still crackling from the usage of lightning chakra. A blue trousers with an overcoat wrapped around their legs, held in place with a large purple, rope-like belt. A sword with no guard sheathed behind their back, and a white shirt with a large collar. Only a simple decoration adorned the whole outfit. A single fan on the back of the neck of the shirt. The Uchiha emblem.

"SASUKE!" yelled Naruto, recognizing the figure.

Sasuke Uchiha was standing across from him, black spiky hair and black eyes the same as ever.

"You truly are an idiot… do you honestly think you can take on Madara Uchiha as well as Nagato?" asked the traitor, smiling smugly. "Surely you know that the best person to take down an Uchiha is another Uchiha"

Stepping towards the duo of ninja, he started speaking again.

"Don't touch him, I will kill him to complete my revenge. Madara, Itachi told me. You helped him kill the rest of my clan. Now you will die for your treachery!"

Sasuke activated his sharingan, the atomic design of the Mangekyou painted onto his irises.

"Sasuke… what are you doing!" yelled Naruto "Once I'm through with these guys, I'm bringing you back to Konoha with me!"

The Uchiha shook his head wistfully, eyeing the orange haired man and the deadly glares he was receiving from Madara, glares that would have put him into Tsukuyomi if he hadn't activated his own Mangekyo and negated the powerful genjutsu.

"I figured as much… try winning your fight first, then get cocky, Dead-last"

With that, Sasuke lunged forward using the assassin style of stepping he was taught to use Chidori, running straight at Madara. The elder Uchiha dodged backwards, exiting the same way as the Kirin had.

"This is FOOLISHNESS Sasuke!" yelled the elder Uchiha "You could have had all your dreams fulfilled if you had only done exactly what I said"

Madara skidded backwards, to the edge of the balcony, waiting for Sasuke.

"I only had one dream for the future. To kill a certain man. Isn't that right, Naruto?" said Sasuke "Well I've killed him… Now what about the man who helped in the massacre of my clan?"

Sasuke charged forwards without another word, watching as Madara jumped backwards off the ledge, surely ready for battle as he fell, before jumping off after him.

Naruto was left facing Nagato, the skinny man looking almost insignificant across from the toned sage.

"I am never alone, Kyuubi, even when all other allies have abandoned me"

Nagato flew through several hand seals quickly, a lot quicker than even Naruto could form them himself, before slapping his hands to the ground.

A familiar image appeared in front of him, a large, white undulating monstrosity.

The King of Hell

It drew itself to it's full height, actually possible in this tall room, before opening it's mouth wide.

'_No… no way! How did he do this!'_ thought Naruto, his face distorting into a shape of panic. _'I know I destroyed them!'_

The 6 paths of Pain emerged from the mouth of the King of Hell, each one slightly different from before. Insignificant differences, the basic shape and appearance was the same, but some things weren't. The amount of piercings in one of their faces and the length of another's ponytail. These were not the same bodies as before, it was as if someone made a statue with only a single photograph as a reference.

"I am a God, Kyuubi, even resurrection is nothing for someone like me"

Naruto clenched his fists angrily,

"If you chose not to kill, resurrection wouldn't be necessary"

Nagato laughed dryly, his voice cool but his words harsh.

"You have the same mindset as Tsunade… prevention over cure and all that medic jazz…"

With a wave of his hands, the realm's arranged themselves in a line in front of him.

Animal, Human, Asura, Preta, Naraka and Deva.

Naruto meanwhile had formed seals, his fingertips now glowing black in the artificial light of the room.

"You're not the only one with tricks, Nagato" said Naruto, testing his use of the name. It felt weird on his tongue, eerily similar to his own name. He raised his hand, about to slam it into his own, nearly bare stomach.

"Get him!" commanded Nagato, six realms in front him leaping forward as one.

"**Alright Master, if you want to become the real master of the seal, you just put your hand here and channel chakra" said Key, indicating a drawn square box on his scroll-body.**

**Naruto did so, much to the intrigue of Hiashi, Neji, Hanabi and a recently awoken Hinata.**

**Suddenly, his fingertips started to glow black. **

"**That's all Naruto, focus your chakra into your fingers as if you were aiming to pierce something, then you just put the 'key' into the 'lock' and do what you normally do to keys. Of course, I really wouldn't suggest doing it. It's meant to keep something in there and with the protections that seal offers, something that should stay in there"**

"**So when would be the right time to use it?" asked Naruto, somewhat sheepish that he didn't know the answer himself.**

"**When the world's gonna end is a good starting point" said Key, shrugging his shoulders. "Do you mind sending me back to Mt Myoboku, I want to catch up with my family… I've been stuck in that ball for months and haven't been home in a decade and a half."**

"**Sure thing Key, thank you" said Naruto, stomping on the toad's toes seeing as he couldn't reach his head, disturbing his chakra matrix and giving him a first class ticket back to Mt Myoboku.**

'_Well… if I don't stop this guy now, he'll use the Tailed Beasts to bring the world into chaos. I think this counts'_

At that exact moment, Naruto pushed his fingertips into the corresponding holes on the seal, and twisting.

The world phased to grayscale around him as Naruto twisted his palm into his stomach. The movements of Pain immediately come to a halt; the bodies frozen into all sorts of odd positions, some defying multiple laws of physics.

"Hello, Naru."

Naruto felt a pressure against his back, a solid pressure. Someone was standing behind him, back to back.

Naruto looked side to side sharply and was about to pivot on his foot.

"Don't Turn Around!" instructed the voice sharply, Naruto felt the tone of voice and stopped, letting his chakra do the seeing for him. "To see me now would destroy my form, you must solidify it before you see it."

"What are you talking about? Who the hell are you!" yelled Naruto, still obeying the instruction.

"I've been wanting to meet you for some time" came the voice, an identical tone to his own. This was getting really creepy.

Naruto assumed a combative stance, sloppy somewhat from his previous exhaustion but a powerful one nonetheless.

"Identify Yourself" said Naruto in a callous voice. He was mentally fatigued and it showed. He was irritable and severely wanted to kick more ass.

The voice gave a bemused chuckle at the comment.

"I'm sorry, does my voice alarm you? I understand it must be quite off putting but I thought the man whose combat specialty is shadow clones may be used to it."

"Explain"

The voice breathed out in a sigh. "Sit, we shall talk". Naruto spared a glance at the group of 7 frozen in time. The voice seemed to notice this and spoke to Naruto.

"Fear not, they shall not move while we speak. I may not be powerful alone but with you, my power increases many times beyond mortal comprehension."

Naruto continued suspiciously. Losing your teacher and godfather so suddenly changed a man.

"Why should I trust you, is this another trick from that furry bitch?"

This time, the voice let out a laugh. He was obviously amused by this.

"Please, sit down and I'll explain everything about me. If you do not wish to continue after the explanation, then I will disappear and you will never worry about me again. Fair?"

Naruto didn't answer, he just sat down instead. He was willing to listen to an interesting story, might even be a bit of a break.

"Good choice" said the voice as they both sat down at the same time, legs crossed loosely "Now… where to begin… ah yes, the beginning"

Naruto couldn't help feeling awkward as a large amount of sweat ran down his already sticky back.

"Right, to put it at the beginning, you know the whole story about you and the Fourth Hokage right?" After a confirmation, he continued "Well, you see, Lil Mina only sealed the Yin Chakra of the Kyuubi. The other half, the Yang, is available for you to use as Youki. But, the seal did not regulate the control of the Yin, only the Yang. If it had been left alone and to its own devices, you would have not lasted a year of life."

"So why am I still alive?" yelled Naruto, tempted to turn around and punch the person speaking.

"I'm _getting_ to that part. Jeez, so impatient. Anyway, there had to be a regulator inside you to control that Yin Chakra. But no seal is capable of controlling Yin on its own. It has to be Complete or Yang Chakra to have a seal control it. So one of us had to come and do the job"

"Us…?"

"Yes, Us, I am what's known as a Chakra Demon. And I entered you at your birth to stabilize the seal… You can look now if you'd like"

Naruto spun around while sitting down, expecting an image of an Oni, horns and scaly skin. What he saw was different.

A duplicate of himself, nearly perfect in construction. There were flaws, there always was. But these were still perfect flaws. Designed. Unnatural. 4 thick black lines in a diamond-esque shape from the bridge of the nose, to each ear then meeting again at the chin. And those eyes, eyes that were reversed. Black sclera, white iris and white pupils.

"That is why my appearance is yours; I am as close you to as possible, I feel everything you do, I know everything you do, I am You."

Naruto jumped up and started to activate his Sage Mode before realizing, he could no longer do it.

"I thought you might react as such, so I met you here. This place is The Precipice. Not quite life, not quite death. I needed a neutral place to talk, so I brought you here. It's not like I'm here to suck your chakra in some sick, boy love vampire scene. I'm here to offer you my assistance."

"Assistance?" asked Naruto keeping his guard up.

"Yes, to help. The man in front of you is as close to a God as is possible to mortals. But he is still mortal. I am not. That seal you unlocked gave you complete control over the seal. You are it's true master now. You can unlock the amount of chakra necessary to nearly win, but you will still lose. With this man, there can be no half-measures. He must be obliterated"

Naruto stared for a second "Obliterate..." the word tasting foreign on his tongue.

"Now… you have two options. Refuse my help and lose alone, or accept my help and _destroy_ him."

Naruto considered this for a moment. Then something sprung to his mind.

"How do I know you're not just Kyuubi in a transformation? This could be some trap."

"And what good what that do her? You're in a position where, if you don't accept my help, you will die in this fight. So it's a case of kill or be killed."

Naruto stood and considered this.

'_If I take his help, I can win. But what damage will it do to the seal? If the Kyuubi gets out, everyone will be in danger. Ah man, I really don't want to make this decision. AH! Bingo, Kyuubi said that all demons are honor bound to hold to a promise. And she's always followed through, even when she was pissed…'_

"Ok then Demon, I want a promise. A promise that you are telling the whole truth" said Naruto, his face steadying into a contortion of seriousness.

"Such rudeness from one so young… I do have a name you know. Everyone does"

"Fine, _Demon_, what is your name? And do you promise that everything you said is the truth.?"

"My name is Yomi. Not original I understand but still a name, it is the name of my birthplace. And of course I do. My situation is the same as Kyuubi's. Only thing different is that I couldn't voice my pleas because of that seal."

Naruto stood up straighter and Yomi soon followed suit.

"So we have a deal?" asked Yomi held out a hand, thumb cocked and fingers together.

"Deal" confirmed Naruto as he met the hand, thumbs interlocking and fingers wrapping around the outside of Yomi's hand.

"Great" was all Yomi said. Then things got weirder.

The world around them shattered. Literally; it fractured, then exploded around them.

Color once more ruled and the grayscale disappeared back into the spectrum. But he didn't. Yomi stood there, bold as brass, with a smirk on his face and his fingers crooking into a battle stance. Pain and Nagato kept their attack going, racing towards the duo with a vengeance.

'_It's only a shadow clone, doesn't he realize they wont work on me?' _thought Nagato _'No… he does… this is different than a shadow clone.'_

Nagato jumped away, soaring a rather incredible 10 feet into the air before skidding backwards and having the Six Paths Of Pain surround Naruto and Yomi.

"Awww… shame… he figured it out. Now I actually have to get serious" said Yomi croakily as he bent down into a feral stance.

Nothing happened.

For a moment.

*KRURURURURURU*

A large atmosphere of Chakra overcame the large hall they were standing in, streaks of black and red circulating around the body of Yomi. They got faster and faster, sucking the breath straight from everyone present.

The air around them fluctuated, weaving in and out like some psychopathic seamstress. Then the streaks became corporeal, they gathered together and sewed themselves among each other. They made themselves into a true cloak of chakra. But this was different to anything either of them had seen before.

A black so deep it seemed to never end had enveloped Yomi, red streaks gave the only inclination that light may have a chance on its surface. The shape was almost identical to that of Naruto's four tailed transformation state; only this time, there were 9 tails. This didn't even seem like chakra, this was pure evil emanating from him. He crouched lower into a pouncing stance, milky eyes glaring directly at Nagato.

Then the figure spoke.

"**Hey, Asshole… why do you think you are God? Is it because of those eyes? Or perhaps your skill with Ninjutsu?"**

"Of course" said Deva "I am beyond all humans in this world. No one" "has the power to defeat me" finished Preta

"**You are correct, no one does." **said Yomi **"But how about two?"**

That small sentence meant so much to so few.

To Nagato, it wasn't a threat; it was a challenge of defiance, to test his power.

To Yomi, it wasn't a threat, it was his thoughts

To Naruto, it wasn't a threat; it was his strength.

"**You have murdered our truest teacher, destroyed our village, killed our friends and gotten rid of everything that built us into what we are. Now remember this; Naruto, do you have any last words for Nagato?"**

Naruto started to look imposing as he too lowered his stance, entering sage mode and ready to fight. A small snarl erupting from his throat as the density of the situation dropped down on him.

"This is for the perverted hermit!"

Yomi cackled in amusement, like sparks escaping from a broken pylon. The laughter slowed down as he looked again at the realms and Nagato.

"**We're both ready to kill you Nagato… so guess what"**

Nagato looked at Yomi expectantly; Naruto on the other hand didn't take his eyes off the realms.

"**Your ass is mine!" **roared Yomi as his chakra presence emitted around him. The sheer pressure of it pushing the Six Paths Of Pain into the ground, but they held their ground well enough.

Nagato was the first to recover, holding his hands out towards the pair, not even having formed seals.

"Lava Style: Stream!" "Hydrovolt Style: Torrent!"

From his left came a torrent of lava – created by fire and earth mixed together – while his right sprouted a blast of the lightning-empowered water – the Hydrovolt element

"Naru, take the sparking water, if we get him, the others will drop dead" said Yomi hurriedly, his voice almost imperceptible from the sound of static.

Naruto didn't get a chance to reply as the two torrents reached the pair. Leaping into the air, the hydrovolt stream missed him, but still continued on, changing directions.

'_He's using them like whips'_

The streams of elements swung from side to side, intent on hitting the pair of shinobi.

"Follow my lead Naru!" called Yomi as he jumped, straight into the line of the lava.

The demon landed on the lava, not letting out a sound as the lava started to attack his chakra cloak with heat. He then started to run against the lava flow, straight at Nagato. Naruto hesitated before realizing what Yomi was doing. Dropping onto the hydrovolt stream, he formed a surface around his foot as if water walking and then ran towards the leader of the Akatsuki, careful not to touch anything but his soles to the water.

'_Why are they not being hurt by this?' _thought Nagato _'That lava is over 800 degrees Celsius. And that water carries a voltage that's more than enough to kill someone.'_

Waving the streams around wildly, he tried to throw the pair off of his technique, but they stayed stuck.

"Deva, Human; stop them."

The two named realms ran at the pair who were making their way towards them quickly. As they reached the pair, Nagato stopped the flows of elements from continuing. The torrents disappeared almost immediately, dropping the pair to the floor and into the range of the realms.

Deva stood in front of Yomi, making hand seals as he watched the demon eye him up. Human on the other hand had charged Naruto before he had even landed, aiming a large punch upwards at the sage.

The punch was deflected and Naruto grabbed it with one hand, using the force to push himself around Human at a safe distance.

In this time, Deva had finished his seals, a blue glow now surrounding his arms and legs.

"Elemental Nintaijutsu," said Deva, "Water Alignment"

Deva charged forward, his limbs now surrounded by an ice-cold water barrier. His first punch was to Yomi's chest. Letting the punch hit him, Yomi hissed as the water on Deva's arm started to evaporate but was replaced just as quickly.

'_So much for an advantage…' _thought Yomi as he ducked another punch and tried to use a counter, but Deva blocked his strike with his other arm.

Looking around, Yomi saw that Naruto had landed safely, having countered Human's punch, and called to him.

"Change it up!" before dodging another punch from Deva, this one aimed at his head.

Naruto formed a single seal before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Human started to slow down, waiting for the object to appear so he could confirm where the sage had moved to. As he looked around, his search was disrupted by a sudden punch to the face. A powerful punch, it was strong enough to knock him out onto the balcony and over the edge with little resistance.

Yomi crouched back down, having overbalanced himself to get that punch. He turned to look at Naruto who had used Yomi's low position to use the Low Toad Stance to kick the realm in the chin, sending him straight over the edge of the balcony as well. The two backed up so they both standing up, one of their shoulders touching together so they faced out like a chevron.

"Summoning Technique: Menagerie!" called a female voice, Animal had her hands slammed into the ground right behind Naruto and Yomi.

The two spun around, but Animal had already disappeared into the smoke that now surrounded them. The smoke was soon swept away, revealing ridges, fur, feathers, scales and other textures. Surrounding the two was a huge collection of different animals; Hawks with a wingspan of nearly 12 metres wide, Crocodiles that were so long that they ended up partially on the balconies, Lizards who's tongues were as thick as pillars and had bodies to match and finally, Tigers with fangs reaching the bottom of their jaws and deranged eyes, bloodshot and violent.

In a single instant, the animals all charged, weaving in and out of each other like the technique's name would suggest.

Naruto gripped Yomi's wrist in one hand without warning, a tad shocked at not feeling any pain from the chakra surrounding the demon, and formed a rasengan in his other hand.

"Throw me" said Naruto, gripping tighter. Yomi nodded, gripping down with his own hand on Naruto's hand.

Heaving with all his strength, the black coated clone pulled backwards and let Naruto fly past him. As the sage started to leave Yomi's arm span, it did something he hadn't thought possible. The arm remained solid, a solid limb of near black chakra, that Naruto kept holding onto. Then he suddenly remembered. Those years ago, at the Valley of the End, he had done something similar to fight against Sasuke. The sage extended his arm, breaking his thoughts as he collided with the first summon.

The tiger let out a howl as it disappeared in a puff of smoke, the sheer volume making Nagato wince. Turning to the side, Yomi spun Naruto along with him, the teens circle being a lot bigger than his own and a travelling a lot quicker.

Soon, a cacophony of noises was appearing all around the pair, along with a vast cloud of smoke in a circle around the pair.

Preta moved without so much as an instruction, charging at the conker-like Naruto who was still in mid spin, intent on eliminating the threatening chakra ball. The sage's eyes opened wide as the fat realm charged through the smoke, nearly on him within an instant. With a jolt, and a lot of effort on his part, he pulled on the arm holding him.

The largest realm was within a hair's breadth of Naruto when the large black form of Yomi appeared in his periphery, claws raised. In less than the time it took for Preta to turn his head, those same claws became embedded in his head with an awful sound.

Naruto fell backwards from the force of Yomi arriving, but got back into a defensive stance, watching the last remnants of the destroyed summons' smoke disappear.

The demon leapt onto the realm, his fully animalistic side coming out, his claws slashing, punching and kicking the realm. An arm was soon wrenched from its socket with a disgusting click, the ligaments and muscle tearing like paper under Yomi's strength.

Then he bit down. Two rows of violently spiked teeth, each nearly four inches long attached to a huge maw, large enough for Yomi to fit the fattest realms head inside. The realm could smell the sulfurous air inside the demon's lungs, poisoning him with each breath. Preta struggled against the onslaught but was held back by those teeth. Each one leaving deep incisions in the flesh, blood spurting out as his heart thumped .

*GRAK*GRAK*GRRRRRRRAK*

The demon's maw soon surrounded the realm's face, blood streaming from the bite wounds, deep wounds where massive disfiguration was the best case scenario.

Eyeballs found themselves forced from Preta's skull as the whole thing broke apart, becoming a gooey mess in the demon's mouth.

Yomi took one final look at the realm's remains before jumping back at them, hacking and slashing with a vengeance. By the time he was done, Preta was a bloodstain on the floor.

"Not even that monster will be able to revi-." Said Yomi, blood dripping from his mouth, cutting him off and further disturbing his voice.

Before Naruto could reply, he felt his cheek being caved in by something. A quick glance to the side saw that it was Naraka, his fist still extended. Less than a second later, the realm was throwing his fist forward again, intent on killing Naruto. The sage dived away to the side, recovering quickly as he faced his sensei's only other remaining student.

"Fyre Style: Barrage! Mud Style: Barrage! Ash Style: Barrage!" called Nagato, sending out a machine-gun like spray of balls made from mud, ash and glowing white fire.

The pelting was constant, these heavy elemental bullets blasting the walls of the room, causing craters wherever they landed. Naruto weaved in and out of them like an eel; heat skimming his remaining clothing and even scorching his skin occasionally, just by a glancing blow.

As the bombardment slowed down, Naraka re-entered the fray, throwing punch after punch at Naruto. The sage did his job, ducking and dodging, as he fought back from Body Toad Stance, his punches and kicks felt different to before.

'_My punches and kicks… they're so much sharper than they were before… is it because of him?' _wondered Naruto about Yomi as he caught Naraka's rhythm.

Yomi had taken advantage of Nagato's distraction. Jumping around to behind the leader as he sprayed the sage with elemental bullets, he thought to himself briefly.

'_If Nagato is distracted, he can't give the bodies new orders?'_

With a solid kick, Yomi launched the man into the fray, directly into Naraka and Naruto's current battle.

Looking backwards, he saw the remaining four realms advancing on him slowly. Asura, Animal, Deva and Human. Smiling devilishly, Yomi taunted them further.

"Bring it on you cunts"

Nagato was nearly upon Naruto when he muttered to himself,

"Chakra Scalpels"

A mist of chakra emerged from his outstretched hands, each one capable of cutting tendons and muscle whilst completely bypassing the skin. Naruto eyed this technique cautiously.

'_That's the same move Kabuto used against Granny years ago… I'll be damned if I let it hit me again.'_

Naruto ducked down, dodging the realms' controller by a fraction of an inch with the chakra skimming a few strands of his hair.

As he rose back up, Naruto was forced to dodge to the side as Naraka came at him again, fists pumping back and forth quickly. The punches soon changed their patterns, uppercuts and hooks being added to the mix.

'_Dammit… this is getting intense'_

Yomi danced around the four realms with a perverted grace, his fox-like body contorting into shapes that shouldn't be possible. He dodged one of Asura's heavy punches by bending so far backwards that the back of his head touched his heels; following it by pushing off his legs, using his head as a leverage point to kick the burly realm in the jaw then stretching his arms out to grab Deva and Animal's ankles, pulling them to the ground.

As his feet touched the floor, he jumped into the air and landed on Human's shoulders. Before the tall realm could swipe away the demonic pest, Yomi had back-kicked his heel into the realm's head, sending him flying across the room.

As Yomi hit the ground from jumping off of Human, he felt his guts start to try to evacuate their contents. Asura stood behind him with his foot squarely planted in the demon's side. Before Yomi could actually barf, he had been launched sideways into the range of Naruto, Naraka and Nagato.

Naruto saw the demon coming whilst ducking to avoid a punch from Naraka. Giving Yomi a glare that said everything, the demon nodded in acknowledgement.

"ATTTTAAAAAAAA" screamed Yomi as he punched the surprised Naraka in the face, his own momentum adding even more weight to the heavy punch, knocking both of them into the wall fifty feet away. Yomi was the first to recover, having expected the impact, giving him chance to sky kick the resurrecting realm into the air.

With a screech, the giant form of the King of Hell appeared from the ground, intent on swallowing the realm to recover.

"Not again, fake being of the underworld" announced Yomi, crouching down onto all fours.

A low thrum spread throughout the room like a herd of stampeding elephants. It grew louder quickly, with the crackle of chakra usage becoming more prominent. Quickly, small balls of chakra emerged from Yomi and merged into a single, super-dense ball.

The King of Hell grew quickly, trying to reach Naraka before Yomi could finish.

Yomi ate the ball quickly, leaving little time to relish the taste before his jaw inflated. Not wanting to hold back the feeling of fullness, he let it go with a shout.

"TAILED BEAST BOMB!"

The shout was nearly drowned out by the combined scream of power and the white monster.

A large black and red beam of chakra had erupted from his mouth, with the precision of a laser pointed straight at the King of Hell's throat.

Or what was left of it.

A colossal hole had been torn in the creature's throat, leaving the head attached by a bare string of flesh, in the loosest sense of the word.

Yomi had just killed the King of Hell.

Turning his attention back towards Naraka, the realm seemed to be staggering harder than ever. Without wasting a second, Yomi was on him. Digging into the memories of something he'd seen years ago, he found a technique perfect for a staggered opponent.

Sidestepping so quickly that he appeared to have teleported behind Naraka, he threw out his limbs, letting the chakra extended them as they wrapped around the realm like bandages. With a heave of strength, both Yomi and Naraka were high in the air and before even Naruto could react, the pair had flipped over and were approaching the ground at high speed.

"Initial Lotus!" called Yomi as he split away at the last second, allowing just Naraka to hit the ground. The body was a mess, arms and legs at unnatural angles, cuts everywhere on the body and a plateau on his head where it had hit the ground.

'_That was stupid… was his power linked to that monster? Or… was this body just a puppet for the real realm?'_ thought Yomi looking at the remains. Without a single pause, he leapt on the remains, tearing them into tiny pieces even though it's resurrection method was gone.

While Yomi was doing this, Naruto was holding off Nagato and Deva. Blocking a strike at his chest from Deva with his forearm, he felt his bones jar at the force even through sage mode. As the strike connected, a large bullet of lava came from the real leader, forcing Naruto to leap away. Most of their battle revolved around Naruto on the defence while they constantly attacked.

'_They're relentless! They're teamwork… it's so much better than ours… I'm gonna die here, if I can't fight back then I'm going to die here… oh god..'_

"Reverse Sand Armor!" called Nagato, his arm outstretched and pointing at the arm Naruto was using to block a punch.

Realizing his mistake too late, Naruto was stuck between a heavy punch and a sand attack.

'_My body can take sand attacks… Gaara proved that in the Chuunin exams… but even with sage mode I don't think I can take that punch…'_

That was all Naruto would think about before he made up his mind, throwing himself away and into the sand attack, trying to limit the

As soon as the sand landed, it formed a tight band around his elbow, soon expanding a good foot along his forearm and upper arm each. This repeated at each joint until it started to cover his entire body.

"Grand Fireball!" shouted Deva as he finished forming seals, blowing the large ball at Naruto.

Crossing his arms in front of him, Naruto hoped to lessen the damage to his internal organs.

Being pushed backwards, he tried to move his arms to regain his balance but found them stuck. Instead of sand, he now had a thick layer of glass covering his body, effectively sealing him in place.

Seeing his partner's movements freeze, Yomi knew something was wrong. In a fight, freezing either came from injury, paralysis or terror and meant death. And while Naruto was scared, it took a lot more than these things to terrorize him.

The chakra demon leapt at his partner, fists retracted and buzzing with his demonic chakra.

"Sorry Naru, this is gonna hurt a lot" said Yomi as he punched the glass-encased ninja.

Naruto let out a groan as he felt his entire body vibrate, internal and external, from the force of the punch. He wasn't given time to relax as Yomi whispered in his ear.

"We get the summoner next, stop reinforcements"

Naruto gave no indication he had received an order, but Yomi understood he had been listening.

The two turned around and charged at the group of realms that contained Animal, Human and Asura. Naruto formed a shadow clone who approached from the right, dodging Human's strikes while Naruto himself went the route past Asura. Asura's extending arm nearly caught Naruto, but remembering Jiraiya's rotation explanation helped Naruto again as he spun himself quickly to the side, escaping from its grip.

Yomi on the other hand stayed behind, forming the same balls of chakra as a few minutes ago. This time it formed near instantly, now that the demon was becoming used to controlling chakra in this world.

Animal saw two Naruto's flanking her and started to run forwards, giving Asura and Human a chance to cover her, but the two had already backed away from the chakra demon, regrouping next to Deva and Nagato. The small group of realms was being targeted by a large amount of shadow clones, each of them throwing their entire arsenal of weapons at the group. Every time one tried to break off to help Animal, the shadow clones would round them up and send them back to the group like sheep.

She had been cut off.

"Sage Rasengan!" came a duo of the same voice, like an echo

From her rear flanks, two sages approached, if she dodged to either side then they would catch her with that technique, but if she stayed still or moved forward or backward, that… monster of an attack would hit her.

"Tailed Beast Bomb!" came a calmer voice, satisfied with his outwitting of a realm.

Animal stared at Yomi, just kept staring blankly even as the attack consumed her. Her eyes were empty, but that was not of concern now.

The burn mark on the floor was all that was left as proof that Animal had lived.

Naruto and Yomi turned to face their remaining four opponents. Deva, Asura, Human and Nagato.

Human and Asura ran at the now single sage, his clone having disappeared after Yomi's attack finished, while Deva and Nagato attacked Yomi from afar, launching multiple bullets at a time at him.

The pair split apart, Naruto engaging in hand to hand with the two specialists while Yomi took on the ranged pair.

Naruto was able to keep up with the pair, but was kept at a stalemate by their teamwork. Whenever he tried to launch his own attack or a counter, he was blocked and very nearly countered himself, but he could keep his defenses high enough that he couldn't be hit.

The pair were relentless, each one opening with an attack that lead on to another attack from the other. Human swung his leg out in a high kick at Naruto's head which he ducked under, only to come up close with Asura's knee. Rolling forward and through the gap made by Asura's raised leg, he had to roll again quickly as Human's descending foot nearly caved in his head. He was managing to hold on, but barely.

Yomi on the other hand couldn't even get near his opponent; they were keeping him at bay with many attacks with enough force to push him back. He was starting to growl when he yelled to Naruto.

"Hey Naru, remember what your Gai-sensei said to do in this situation?"

Naruto let his body continue automatically for a second as he tried to find that specific piece of information amongst much about youth.

"**Remember young Naruto, that you must always be aware of your opponents weaknesses and strengths, but you must also remember your allies. Take my dear Neji and Tenten for example. Against a ranged opponent, Neji will be next to useless with his Jyuuken specialty, but his partner Tenten would be able to fight them off. And vice-versa, a taijutsu specialist like myself would be better fought by Neji than Tenten. In a battle of life and death, never let pride or revenge keep you from victory. Embrace your team and let the power of youth flow within you! YES! Now let's run around Konoha to celebrate your newfound knowledge!"**

"I remember! Let's do it!" yelled Naruto, dodging between Asura and Human. He reached out into the air, which was filled by Yomi's charka-created and supersized claws. Gripping tightly, the two substituted with each other.

"Hello boys" muttered Yomi as he ran at Human. The smaller realm still had his back turned to Yomi as the demon slid between his legs, grabbing the low hanging flesh above him as he went. The wet tear of the flesh was particularly visceral with Yomi's sick hissing, obviously enjoying bloodshed from his enemy.

Not satisfied with simply injuring the realm, Yomi curved his fingers and thumb into the most spear-like shape they could make before piercing Human through the chest.

As his arm burst out the other side, with an exit wound nearly four times the size of the entry wound, he had a single fist-sized piece of flesh on his 'spear'. Human's heart. Turning to Asura, Yomi leapt at him, wrapping himself around the large realms shoulders and neck.

As Yomi grappled with the large realm, Naruto saw his chance.

"Shadow Clone Technique!" called Naruto, summoning forth three duplicates.

Without a word, they quickly and wordlessly got to work, all while dodging a heavy barrage of elemental bullets from Nagato and Deva. Naruto stayed in the centre of them, circling his wind enhanced chakra above his head. One of his clones helping with the formation and the other two helping with the elemental manipulation.

"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!" yelled the sage before throwing his creation at Asura as his clones popped out of existence.

Surprised by the sudden interruption, as well as distracted by the demon grappling with him and trying to strangle him, Asura couldn't block the flying apocalypse.

The two pieces of what was Asura, top and bottom, separated just above the waistline, dropped to the floor.

Feeling the momentum of battle starting to turn in their favour, Yomi picked up the top half Asura's body and threw it wholeheartedly at Nagato. The rinnegan wielder saw it coming and caught it before it struck him. But the impulse of the throw didn't stop at catching it, Nagato's smaller stature was thrown backwards by the sheer impact force of the heavy body.

Picking up Asura's bottom half, Yomi pulled the legs apart like a wishbone. A feral grin on his face, the demon twisted the legs around in his grip, as if testing the weight.

"Good…. They are heavy, yet unpredictable because of the knees" muttered Yomi

"Are you really going to…?" asked Naruto, eyeing the way he was holding the legs.

"Oh yes. Never let it be said that I don't have a sense of humor" grinned the demon as he took off towards Deva. "Let's finish this!"

Deva heard this and immediately started firing chains of fire and water bullets at the demon.

Naruto dodged the elemental bullets heading towards him, Iron Toad Skin or not, those would hurt if they hit. The shots fizzled loudly as they passed him, nearly burning and scalding even at that proximity. He watched as a few landed and started to form craters in the room. That's when the thought struck him.

'_He's on his last legs… This is his base of operations and his icon in Ame. He's even willing to risk it to take us down…' _

"Hey Yom…" yelled Naruto, stopping mid word as he saw the demon. He just kept running forward, absorbing shot after shot from the last realm.

'_He's a demon, of course he's used to higher temperatures than that. And from the burns I had after the fight with the snake-bastard, the cloak is pretty hot too'_

"Naru, take him downtown" yelled back Yomi over the hiss of boiling water and fire.

'_Downtown…. OH… Down…' _realized Naruto as he found a hole created by the bullets, crept over the lip of the hole and stuck to the ceiling of the floor below.

"Now… just gotta find that guy"

The teen focused for a moment, sensing the nature chakra around him and soon he had a location.

Above him, Yomi was nearly at Deva. Using the legs as pseudo-boomerangs, throwing them in a way to curve around and aim for the realm as a temporary distraction. The realm knocked them away with relative ease and stood ready. But now he was there, with a mighty swipe of his claws, he knocked the former Yahiko squarely on its back. Yomi didn't just stop there, he kept up his assault. Using both hands, he clawed Deva constantly, not letting him recover and waiting for the finishing move.

'_Come on Naru… This one's yours' _thought Yomi as he continued his assault.

The concrete around the body started to crack, Yomi noticed, but not in the way he was expecting. It was rising as opposed to sinking if the main force had come from above. This was coming from below.

Just as this fact came to Yomi's mind, the concrete gave way. An arm appeared in the middle of Deva's chest, kunai in hand, as the body was thrown upwards by another figure appearing from below.

Naruto landed heavily next to the demon, pulling his arm out of the corpse with an exhausted grin.

"Stabbed in the back with a kunai… "said Naruto, giggling in nervous excitement, his battle fatigue starting to catch back up with him.

It took a moment, but Yomi realized that a so called 'God of Shinobi' had been taken down by possibly the oldest ninja technique in the book. A backstab. A loud yell brought his attention back to the remaining fighter. The man known as Nagato.

"You're alone now Nagato, we've taken down your other 6 bodies, the two of us, together" said Naruto panting, "How do you feel now? Knowing you're about to die"

The response was similar to what they expected.

"You people are defying a GOD! My holy wrath shall smite the both of you!"

"Nagato, you're not a god. You're a human, like me. You will not live forever, so accept that fact! In fact, you're life is going to end right here!" yelled Naruto

"NEVER!" screamed the man, nearing tears and forming hand seals. "BLITZ ELEMENT: STORM ATMOSPHERE!"

With the huge surge of chakra that Nagato had put into that technique, balls of lightning and fire appeared everywhere. The sparks shot out violently and the fire spread quickly. It truly was like the whole world was a giant storm around them.

With a growl, Yomi opened his maw and started to suck inwards. Naruto looked at him curiously until he saw its effect. The fire was being absorbed by his demonic physiology.

"Naru, lightning is weak against wind. Use your wind chakra to cancel it out." Said Yomi between breaths.

"But all of my wind techniques will destroy us too!" retorted Naruto

"So create a new one! You can manipulate wind chakra well enough, improvise!"

Naruto looked around him, the lightning and sparks were everywhere, crackling as if to taunt him. Breathing in and out, he started to form his chakra around him, just as he had all those years ago, fighting Mizuki once and Gaara in the Chuunin Exams. He'd never seen anyone else do it, but it just came naturally to him.

'_Lightning is formed from friction in the air… at least that's what Kakashi said he told Sasuke. Air rubbing against each other is basically wind, so if I can make an area of no wind… he shouldn't be able to cause any lightning strikes'_

"Make it bigger Naru! Stop it in it's tracks!"

Naruto didn't need to be told twice, he was seizing control over every part of the air in the room, creating a zone of even air pressure where no lightning could form.

"This is your technique Naru! The ultimate anti-lightning technique! Now cream this bastard!"

And with a small sigh, all the lightning dissipated.

"It's over Nagato, together we can cancel any technique you throw at us"

The man fell to his knees, head in his hands. Raising his head, he yelled "Is this the power of a Jinchuuriki! To destroy even Gods?"

"Go on Naru… kill him. He killed our sensei!" egged on the demon, ignoring Nagato

"Yeah… He did…" said Naruto, his eyes inflaming as he remembered being told the news.

"This is it… strike him down… you will be forever loved in the village… Sakura will love you, and you can be happy"

Naruto looked at the man down on the floor, he held his hand out, gathering the necessary chakra for the Rasengan. He approached Nagato, the spinning ball of chakra whirring in his hand. As he reached the man, he lunged forward, intent on turning his head into a gaping hole.

But he stopped.

'_What am I doing… this guy has submitted himself. If I kill him now, I'll be no better than him… I'll be a… demon. NO… I'M NOT TAKING THAT PATH' _ thought Naruto

Naruto let the chakra from his Rasengan ebb away into the air, but he continued to stand above the man.

"I'm sorry Yomi… If I kill him now, I'll be everything they want me to be. A killing machine… a weapon… a demon..." said Naruto, those last two words murmured lowly

Nagato looked up, his eyes clouding over as he kneeled before Naruto. His faith in himself and his power shattered, left only a broken man, afraid and alone.

"Is this… mercy" Nagato said, choking back tears.

"No…" said Naruto "This is the right thing to do. For what you've done Nagato, I dearly want to make you pay. You killed good people for a petty idea of immortality. There is more than one way to be remembered throughout history… Instead of taking thousands… millions of lives, save them instead." At this point, Naruto went down on his knees as well "Because if you can save even one person's life, they will never forget you, and they will tell that story forever, and you will _never_ be forgotten."

Naruto thought back to Ayame and Teuchi at the Ichiraku shop. They had saved him from being alone all of his childhood. They gave him a place to eat, to be warm, to feel like part of a family.

"They saved me… and they're my family" whispered Naruto, so quietly that only he heard it.

Nagato looked down at the ground, trying to find words that meant something.

"What about if I could bring everyone back… who I've killed today?" mumbled Nagato.

Naruto looked at him in shock, tears still around his eyes.

"You can even bring back the perv?" asked Naruto hopefully

"No… I'm sorry, but I can bring back everyone that I've killed today, me or my realms. If I could do this… would I still be remembered?" questioned Nagato

"I would never forget you if you did." answered Naruto earnestly.

"Thank you, Naruto Uzumaki…" said Nagato as he rose to his feet.

Keeping his hands by his sides, his teary eyes flashed blue as a large amount of chakra surged through them.

"Outer Samsara: Heavenly Life!" called Nagato, the built up chakra being released into the air in a beam heading in the general direction of Konoha.

With a pant, Nagato collapsed to the floor. The sound of his body hitting the ground echoed around the room as Naruto and Yomi watched his eyes flutter close.

The passing of Nagato was marked with the resurrection of Konoha, and a promise to always remember the man who repented.

"You're too kind you know Naru… Any other man would have killed him as soon as look at him. But you got him to resurrect your friends and leave this world at peace… I don't understand you sometimes, and I'm meant to be a part of you" said Yomi with a grin as he let the chakra disappear from his body, his humanoid body reappearing.

Naruto spared a look at the man's closed eyes.

"What should we do about the Rinnegan? We can't just leave it here, I don't want anyone to get their hands on it…" asked the teen.

"Gonna have to destroy it then" said Yomi bluntly "A good hard stamp on the head should do it, crush the skull and the eyeballs will be squished"

"But… he just gave all our friends lives back… shouldn't we at least leave his body intact?"

"If you want the rinnegan destroyed, it has to go. You said you'd remember him. He doesn't need a body now; he'll live in your memory"

Yomi strode over to stand next to Nagato's head.

"Can you do it? Or are you going to leave it to just me?" asked the demon quietly, not mocking but serious.

Naruto rose to stand next to the demon.

"Let's do this, on three." Said Naruto with a nod of confirmation from Yomi "One. Two. Three!"

With a crunch and a wet splash, Nagato's head was destroyed, the rinnegan no longer in existence.

With a sigh, Naruto sat down, then moving onto his back to lay down a few feet away from Nagato.

"So what now Yomi? Will you disappear back to the demon realm? Or are you just gonna wander off?" asked Naruto casually.

Yomi let out a small chuckle as he sat down beside him.

"By unlocking the seal, you opened the door. I can come back and forth from within the seal at your command, in case another guy like Nagato pops up or if you ever want to talk to someone… I know I'm a demon but I know all your little secrets" said Yomi, giving Naruto a small grin.

The teen in question had the decency to blush slightly.

"And you'd better not tell anyone anything then" said Naruto. "So how do you get back inside the seal? Swan dive?"

"Pretty much" came the bland response "Hold on and I'll show you."

The demon stood up and leant over Naruto, before seemingly diving into the teen's stomach.

"Gah!" exclaimed Naruto as he watched Yomi turn back into chakra when he touched the seal.

"See you later, Naru" said Yomi as the last of his chakra was reabsorbed.

"Guuuuu…. That feels weird…" groaned Naruto as he stood up. "Aww man, now I have to get back to Konoha at night"

The teen started to hobble towards the door, pain setting in as the adrenaline left his system and leaving sage mode, leaving him nearly immobile from the amount of aches and pains that he had accumulated over his battles.

"GAH!" groaned the sage as a particularly painful shot ran through him.

"Having trouble, Dead-last?" called a voice from behind.

Whipping his head around, he saw a figure near the door to the balcony. A black haired figure, in about the same shape he was in.

"Nothing I can't handle Bastard, so… will you be coming back to Konoha willingly, or dragged kicking and screaming?" said Naruto, putting his hands up weakly in a fighting stance.

Sasuke laughed at the blond's suggestion.

"I'll be coming back Naruto, if Tsunade will let me back…"

Naruto's frown changed into a grin as he approached the black haired teen.

"So what changed your mind, I thought you were revenge obsessed" said Naruto as he extended his hand.

"Itachi is dead, as is Madara. My family has been avenged… my purpose as an avenger is complete, so I want to move on to my other dream; rebuilding my clan… I just hope Tsunade will understand that I just want to live now…" replied Sasuke as he took the offered hand.

"I'll make her understand, if not, then you can try to make a bet with her. Everyone wants you back, so make her a good offer and you'll be fine" said Naruto as he pulled Sasuke in close, putting an arm over his shoulder to hold him up. Sasuke pushed Naruto away for a second as he placed his cracked sheath to the floor and used it as a cane. He then pulled Naruto back in and made room for him to hold the sheath. Naruto grinned tiredly as he looked at the other teen, equally as exhausted "Ready to head back to Konoha?"

"Heh… sounds good…" said Sasuke sounding relieved as the two started making their way to the exit.

"Hey Bastard… remember that time we did the tree climbing exercise until the early morning and ended up dragging each other back to Tazuna's?"

Sasuke gave the blond a curious look.

"Yeah… why do you ask, Dead-last?"

Naruto just grinned.

"Was fun wasn't it?"

Sasuke stared at him for a second before nodding.

"Yeah… I guess it was…."

"Come on, let's get to Konoha soon, I want to go to sleep but you can bet I'm going to have to give a mission report"

"Sucks to be you"

"Oh bite me you bastard…. by the way, wanna see where I pissed up the wall earlier?"

"No Naruto… No I don't."

XxX


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - Epilogue

XxX

The memorial stone's clearing was quiet today. No birds were singing and the wind was still. Nature itself seemed to respect the dead.

Places like these were never crowded and no-one liked coming here to visit, but for many – like Kakashi – coming here was a vital part of their lives.. The stone obelisk had the names of every shinobi that had died in service to Konoha written on it. Some – like the Hokages – were displayed prominently in view, but each name is given it's place of honor on the stone. Each name was carved into the stone with a technique only a few senior shinobi knew, the memorial stone was otherwise indestructible, nearly completely chakra repellent and harder than diamond. The ore it was made from was rare, far too rare to qualify using in battle or to be plausible as a wall. But as an unbreakable memory of everything Konoha stood for and everyone who died for that ideal… it was perfect.

The tree's didn't move in the slightest as a lone figure appeared in the clearing. Naruto, now a young adult, strode towards the stone.

Now standing at five foot and ten inches, he was average size for a male his age and could no longer be called a shrimp. His hair stayed the same style as always, his headband keeping his hair up and out of his eyes.

As he walked, the cape from the cloak he gained when he became a sage puffed out behind him, now reaching his knees rather than just above his ankles. Having grown bigger, he had changed his wardrobe slightly. He still wore a zip up jacket and pants but these had more black on them with panels of orange only at the sides and across his stomach to highlight it.

It took him only a few seconds to approach the memorial stone, standing over it impassively and walking around it slowly.

"Where did they put his name…" mumbled Naruto, his voice had deepened significantly with aging, it now longer sounded as hyperactive, but still remained it's elements of his good-natured and friendly personality.

Eyeing his objective, he sat down beside the stone on its plinth, crossing his legs and looking at the name.

Jiraiya Goketsu

"Hey… old pervert… I'm here. The idiot apprentice finally makes his appearance" spoke Naruto softly. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner… but I just couldn't… You were the one person in my life I thought was invincible… and you died…"

Naruto clenched his fist and pounded the plinth, but nothing happened, the stone remained unscratched and unharmed.

"YOU DIED… YOU DIED AGAINST A MAN THAT I WAS ABLE TO KILL! SO WHY COULDN'T YOU!" yelled the teen, subduing himself as quickly as his anger came out. "You were always better, stronger and more experienced than me… but you taught me… you taught me everything. Summoning, the Rasengan, Hellish Swamp… and not just techniques… You taught me how to lie, how to love… how to be a shinobi. I was a dreamer, but you didn't stifle that, you just made me better so I could keep on dreaming"

Naruto leaned back on his arms briefly, sitting there in silence and he thought to himself.

'_I'm here because of Granny… I knew I wasn't ready to come here yet… why couldn't she come too?'_

"Oh yeah… Granny Tsunade has been well recently," said Naruto, still leaning back and looking to the sky, a sour look on his face. "Still threatening people and still drinking on the job… I swear, the day she stops drinking in the office is the day she gives me it's keys"

Naruto's look eased up as he thought back to his last conversation with her.

**Naruto was walking along the curved corridor to get to the Hokage's office, having been called there by an ANBU messenger a few minutes earlier. He was just in time to see Sakura come out from the door and pass him with a smile.**

"**Hey Naruto, better hurry up or the Hokage may end your existence!" she called cheerfully.**

**Naruto nodded his acknowledgement and gave a small wave. Turning into the office, he saw Tsunade sat at her desk, quietly fuming to herself. Naruto strode over to the guest seat and sat down quietly.**

"**So what's the problem Granny? Special mission? Clan troubles?" asked Naruto**

"**No Naruto… not every mission will be one of those. Those were special exceptions so you could learn some things about politics. You're Jounin level in combat ability at the least, but your social skills are lacking so I'm helping you train them." Said Tsunade, enunciating every word carefully.**

"**Oh come on Granny, they can't be that bad." Said Naruto somewhat dismissively **

"**You told a rather influent leader of a merchant guild to, and I quote, fellate a cucumber!" yelled Tsunade, slamming her palm against the desk, nearly fracturing it and causing Naruto to tense up. "That is **_**not**_** acceptable behaviour from a Chuunin and is exactly what is keeping you from being a Jounin."**

**Tsunade rubbed her temples with her index and middle fingers for a few moments.**

"**Naruto… I know you can be calm and strategic when you need to be. Why are you being such a child… I swear, the last person who was this childish was Jirai-" Tsunade stopped mid-word as she saw Naruto's body language change. He went from relaxed to awkward very quickly.**

"**You want to imitate him… don't you" stated Tsunade, not even needing to ask.**

**Naruto's continued discomfort was all she needed.**

"**Naruto… you don't need to copy him to be a great ninja… you're a great ninja as Naruto Uzumaki, not Jiraiya's apprentice" said Tsunade**

"**But… he taught me so much Granny… he basically taught me everything I know" **

**Tsunade bit her lip, she remembered how close the pair had been, almost like a father and son.**

"**Why don't you go see his name at the memorial stone Naruto… Let this out. It's not healthy to do this to yourself" **

**Naruto looked at her glumly. **

"**I haven't been yet… and I'm not sure if I should"**

***SLAP***

**He hadn't even seen the blow that hit him, held back so as not to break bones but strong enough to knock him off of his seat. He staggered to his feet dazedly as Tsunade walked around the table, grabbed him and pulled him into a tight hug. He hung his head in her chest, just standing there and breathing slowly**

"**You're an idiot Naruto… the memorial stone is for everyone to say their goodbyes and to grieve. It's not an anchor to keep you like this, but wings to push you on to greater things. Go to him, tell him how much you appreciated him, how everyone is and let him know that you won't ever forget him…"**

"**Can you come too?" asked Naruto, his head upturned and his eyes pleading her.**

"**No, this is something you should do alone. Kakashi won't be there now, he's on a mission, and barely anyone else goes there so it should be quiet" muttered Tsunade **

"**Ok Granny…" said Naruto, breaking away from the hug and heading towards the door, giving her a small glance over his shoulder as she sat back down to do paperwork. Just as he rounded the corner, he saw her lean under the desk and pull out the bottle of sake he knew she always kept there because it was where Shizune rarely looked. **

Naruto smiled sadly, he'd needed that hug earlier.

"You should see what everyone's doing now you old perv… We've all moved on… becoming more like adults." Said Naruto, eyes going out of focus as he remembered everyone.

"Sasuke got held at the gate as soon as we got back from Ame… Bastard's been in an ANBU jail cell for 2 years, and he's still got another 3 to go, then he's out on parole. Still, Sakura's been taking good care of him. As Granny's second assistant, she got the job of checking up on him."

Naruto leaned forward again, looking back up at Jiraiya's name.

"Team Eight's been doing pretty well. Kiba's as big an ass as usual, but Akamaru got even bigger, he's _huge_ now. They're working with the hunter-nin division and look like they're kicking ass." Said Naruto as he remembered Kiba's declaration to the rookies that were available that he'd gotten in, while being yelled at by his mom to keep quiet about sensitive info. "Shino had to take over the Aburame clan when his dad died on a mission last year, he seems like he's handled it nicely, but I'm no judge of clan stuff. And Hinata… she's been doing ok. Her clan has been pressuring her about marriage, at least from what Kiba told me, but I hope she ends up with someone nice… her cooking would be wasted on a jackass."

Naruto took a breath as he finished.

'_Could I be… boring him?' _considered Naruto in his head before continuing.

"Team Ten has been kicking some serious ass recently. I even heard some people in the street saying that the new Ino-Shika-Cho trio is even better than the first one. Shikamaru's the godfather of Kurenai's daughter Shiko and he's pledged to be a cool adult. Ino is still loud, but she's become really good at seducing guys. Rumor has it that ANBU want her for infiltration. And Chouji... Chouji is pretty awesome. He's still chunky but he has so much muscle on him that he's like a tank. That and he's one of the best medicine makers that Konoha has now. He gave me a set of pills before I fought Nagato that he later told me he'd made himself. It didn't eat at my fat reserves much but it filled my chakra reserves back to full. He might have saved my life with those pills."

Naruto paused as he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned his head quickly and saw nothing. Turning his head back to the memorial slowly, he kept his ears open for any new noises with a small smile.

"And Team Gai… who could ignore those guys? Neji is being trained as the leader of the branch house, and he's helping Hinata as much as he can now. I guess I really did knock that fate bullshit out of him" said Naruto, grinning to himself slightly "Tenten is working at the academy now, she decided her weapons specialty was impractical and too expensive to be used in the field so decided to take up a teaching role and help the next generation. Apparently all the kids are scared of her because she can hit their foreheads with chalk even from the back of class before they can dodge. And Lee… he's nearly as bad as Gai is now. The two are training near constantly but Gai has been taken to letting him pursue girls now. I tell you, it's a sight watching him flirt. But he's learning, some civilian girls look past that eccentricity and see a nice guy who happens to be among the most muscular in Konoha. Even the ones that don't will normally tell him what he did wrong…. Which he then writes in that damn notebook of his. I still don't know where he hides it…"

Naruto's brain froze for a second as he erased that thought from his head, leaving him with a lethargic look on his face.

"And me? I've been trying to grow up. It's nowhere near as fun as when you were teaching me, or as quick… You were my greatest teacher… I miss those times… I really do miss them. I even tried writing some of your damn novels… but I never could get the detail like you could… shows how much I lack… in a lot of areas. But I'm working on it! Don't think I'd ever let your legacy be forgotten. I reached Chuunin after I came home from fighting Nagato and I'll take the Jounin exam once Granny decides I'm ready. I even made a new technique against Nagato. Took me months to finally recreate it, but it's a good one. It stops all lightning attacks in an area I choose. I didn't even know what to name it, so Granny suggested Astraphobia. She told me that means the fear of lightning. It suits it pretty well, I thought."

Naruto hunched his back over, his forehead leaning against Jiraiya's name on the stone.

"I wish you could be here now Perverted Hermit…"

"Naruto… So you were visiting Lord Jiraiya?" came a voice from the same place he had entered the clearing.

Naruto looked up and saw a familiar dark haired woman. He let a small smile come to his face.

"Yeah… Don't worry, I'll be right there." Called Naruto to the woman, giving her a flash of a grin "Just got to finish up here."

The woman visibly sighed, shoulders sagging and head sinking.

"Ok then, but if you don't make the appointment then even the Hokage won't be able to save you"

Naruto paled slightly "Understood." Turning back to the memorial stone, he slowly stood up. "Sorry Perv, but I have to go for now. Don't worry though, I'll be back… the next wait won't be as long either, and I'll have some stories for you"

Naruto started walking away from the memorial, towards the woman now waiting for him. He turned back towards the pillar briefly.

"I'll see you again Jiraiya, just you wait"

With that, Naruto finished the walk over to the woman who gave him a quick clap on the shoulder before the two jumped off into the trees.

XxX

_~They pushed themselves for a cause~_

_~And lost a friend to the darkness~_

_~They trained to gain __the strength of the __earth~_

_~And experienced the __joys __of heaven~_

_~They found a reason to __live~_

_~And fought for it to the end~_

_~They knew they would eventually be separated~_

_~But were __taught__ to never give up, for that was their ninja way~_

_~And then they both knew, they would have another meeting~_

XxX

A/N: And that's it folks, the end of my last Naruto fanfic. I was determined to get it finished before I posted anything so no-one would be bothered by delays or my lazy schedule. This chapter was, as always, beta'd by Lucifer Allheart, so head on over to his profile and check out his stories.

I want to hear your opinions on this fic, seeing as it was my first time doing such detailed fight scenes and I'm very inexperienced with them, so please make sure to drop me a review, maybe telling me your favourite moments or anything particular you liked about the story.

Peace out y'all.


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